National Treasure 3
by UltimateTrueLove
Summary: Ben, Abigail, and Riley go on a new adventure to find another lost treasure.
1. Chapter 1 - 3

National Treasure 3

**Chapter 1**

Two strangely dressed men, who are sweating and covered with soil, step out from behind a large rock which obscures the cave opening behind them. They scoop some water from the shallow pool at their feet, and drink, looking out at the river racing past. It is wide and deep, and cold, but they are breathing hard and sweating. The taller man points at the cave, and speaks in an unknown language. Returning to their task, the continue to move large stones to cover the cave entrance, many stones taking their combined strength to move. When they look at their completed task, they begin to scoop dirt with their cupped hands, to further obscure the opening. Replacing their heavy cloaks, the leader adds a headdress with feathers and small gemstones on it.

Riley Poole enters, or tries to enter FBI Agent Sadusky's office. Hooking first one of his back packs, then the other, on the door frame, he finally forces his way in, nearly falling on his face.

"Thank you for coming, Mr. Poole, as I said over the phone, I tried to contact Ben and Abigail, but they are apparently on their honeymoon." Sitting back in his chair, calmly waiting while Riley tries to stack his gear against a wall. After the third time the stack falls over, Riley kicks the pile, and finds a chair "How did you know? You weren't invited."

"I know, but this is Mrs. Essie Parsley, who has a story to tell, a bit outside the normal cases we get here."

"Hello. I am the last of my family, and something told me that I needed to share my story. Neither of my children had families, and I have outlived both of them."

"What is it you have to show me?" said Riley, pointing at her clutched hands.

Essie Parsley opened her small bag, and pulled out a very old tin can shaped like a cigarette pack. She pushed the top off the slightly rusted can, and removed a small hand made notebook, with a tin type photograph dating back to just after the Civil War. Turning the can over, a small gold beetle, a scarab, tumbled onto the desk top, glittering in the room light

Sadusky picked the item up, then replaced it without comment.

Essie continued, "These notes were mostly written by Granny Abby while William Wright, my grand sire, lay on his death bed. The picture was taken after his return from the west, sometime around 1880's, no one knows for sure. The story he told her, she wrote as best she could, was about a fabulous treasure he and his two friends found somewhere along the banks of the Colorado river. This treasure was hidden in a cave, that they uncovered, and would rewrite history. They built a barge to float it down river, to the first docks they found. Of course, there was was much hoopla, but they were told that government men were coming to take care of it, and they had to wait. They gave away a few pieces of treasure to pay their expenses. The government fellers, loaded it up into two large crates and had it hauled off to the East Coast. The government men threatened them with lifetime imprisonment, or even death, if they told anyone about the whole experience. When they arrived some time later to collect whatever reward was due, the crates were found to contain worthless artifacts, spears, headdresses, and pots. When asked their names, his friends gave the government men the phony names of S. H. Jordan, and G. E. Kinkaid. The only thing Grandpa Wright had left was the gold beetle, and he never showed to anyone but family. He spent his life trying to find what he had lost. He never saw his old partner again, neither, name of Joseph Statz. I don't know the third man's name or what happened to him, William and he were separated before they returned east."

Sadusky paused for a few moments while Essie calmed herself, then said, "There is some writing on the front of the booklet also."

"William wrote that with his final breath."

Sadusky read it aloud, "There are three circles in the Wivver, start at the middle, in the stone house. Paddle until you see the rye." The last few words were shakily written, and the word 'rye' was pressed deeply into the paper.

When Riley picked up the book, a slip of paper fluttered out, it said, 'Crates labeled CR-102, CR-103'. He slipped it back into the book.

After Essie had calmed down, she was escorted out of the office and driven home.

Sadusky and Riley decided to go to the Smithsonian together to check on the crate numbers listed, mostly to verify some small part of the story. As they entered, Sadusky tapped a young man on the shoulder, and held out his badge. "We need to check some evidence in your storage area."

The young man started to say he needed to get clearance from someone, but Sadusky gave him the eye and said "Right now!" The man hemmed and hawed for a moment, then grabbed some keys and took them to the elevator. A couple floors down they were admitted to a locked storage room, and found the crates only a few minutes later. Riley opened one crate while Sadusky pried the top off the other. American Indian headdresses, spears and pottery were all the crates contained. In a low tone, Sadusky said, "Why two large crates for this little pile of junk? Let's get out of here." Riley mumbled something with his head down in the crate, and came up with two shards of pottery. He smiled as he stuffed them in a pocket.

After leaving the building, Riley opened his mouth to ask a question, but Sadusky held up one hand and said, "No, I can't officially do what I just did, but it saved hours of paperwork, and perhaps a delay of a week or more with red tape. Something I learned from Ben, when he crawled under a certain desk."

"So, you believe the story she told us?"

The federal agent stopped and turned toward Riley, "I believe she believes it. The crates tell my nose that something smells here. Let's take the weekend, and fly down to Phoenix, and visit Ben."

"But you weren't supposed to know about that..." his voice trailed off. "Well look at that, these fell into my pocket!" Producing the shards of pottery, he said, "We will have to ask Ben where these shards come from."

Sadusky just smiled.

Back at the federal building, as he and Riley parted, Sadusky said, "I will take care of the tickets, yours will be an open ended round trip to Phoenix; I have other business to attend to out there, most of which is best done on a golf course."

**Somewhere in Arizona**

Ben stopped the car and looked around at the buildings around them. "I think we are lost, Abigail."

"Really, I couldn't tell, Ben."

"Can you give me your map so I can try to figure out where we are?"

"Sure, dear...but if you get us lost again...I will get out of the car and walk to the Hot Springs."

"Yes, Abigail." Ben looks at the map twisting and turning it about trying to figure out where they were and how to get to the Hot Springs. As Ben was looking over the map, "Aha! I have figured it out!"

Ben started up the car and turned it around. As they got to the intersection where they had turned wrong, he drove straight. "We had turned left instead of right."

"Thank you dear for figuring out where we needed to go."

"No problem, Abigail."

After touchdown, Riley retrieved a large amount of luggage from the carousel, and had to promise the cabbie extra because of all the gear.

Across town, Abigail was standing at a window looking at the hot springs area. Ben was behind her, saying, "You really smell nice..."

"I am glad you finally noticed." They embraced and Ben kisses Abigail's forehead. She smiles and leans her head onto Ben's chest. After a bit Abigail says "Ben, now that we're married..." as she glances down at her ring and wiggles her fingers.

Ben raises an eyebrow "Yes?"

"Don't you want a child, Ben?"

"With the kind of life we lead?"

"Well, we could try to settle down for a bit."

Ben shakes his head and says "Don't you want to explore more of the world? See what is truly out there? Find treasure that has been lost for ages? This is what I love doing! I love this life just as much as I love you, Abigail."

"I love you too, Ben. But the Gates line ends with you."

Ben gapes at Abigail and slowly blinks. He then stutters "Bu...bu...bu...Are you pregnant?"

Abigail shakes her head "No, but I wouldn't mind a child in the future."

Ben smiles and replies "That sounds great." Just then, Ben looked out to see Riley tripping over the curb, while trying to move a huge pile of luggage. They sat down at a table in the spacious entry area, decorated with a great many plants, and a large central pool. Riley entered, and began to stack all of his gear and luggage against the wall. Twice it toppled over, with Ben and Abigail trying their best not to break out laughing. The third time, he waved both hands at the pile, and joined them at a table. He was holding an orange he had plucked off a tree just outside the door.

"I am sure you have a good reason for interrupting our _honeymoon_, _Riley_. At least you gave us six days together before crashing the party. By the way, don't eat that orange." Before an answer could be given, another sat down at the table.

"Sadusky, whatever are you doing here?"

Riley started spitting, and threw the inedible orange into a waste basket.

"Sorry to mess up your party, as long as you were down here anyway, doing nothing..."

"You thought it would be a good idea to drag Riley down here to muddy the waters."

"It's not like that, Ben. The actual venture I am suggesting is rooted down here anyway, and I have business meetings here for the next three days or so."

Abigail put her finger to Ben's lips before the retort popped out, and said, "Let's just hear what he has to say, and then you can throw him out if you want to."

There was no one else in the area, so Sadusky dropped the notebook, sheet of paper, and the golden scarab on the table. Riley struggled out the pottery shards to add to the pile, while still trying to wipe the terrible taste from his mouth. While Sadusky related the entire story to them, Abigail and Ben began rummaging through the small pile on the table.

After a few minutes, Abigail said, "That scarab looks real, but I would like to have the gold tested."

"Already done Miss Chase," Sadusky said, "It tests to the eastern Mediterranean."

"That's Mrs. Gates," she responded with a huge smile.

Abigail rose to get a few things from the room, while Ben puzzled over the coded message and the booklet. He was talking when she returned, 'The message on the front is interesting, but vague, and the misspelling..."

Abigail produced a few small tools, a pick, a pair of tweezers, and a small magnifying glass, that rotated out of a protective shield.

"The message is intentionally vague, but 'wivver'..."

"Ben, one thing the old lady said was that her grand sire had a speech impediment, he couldn't pronounce his 'r's, Riley commented, "Then that would make the word 'river', but I don't know about finding a field of rye wheat in that area. Does anyone know what rye even looks like?"

"Riley, you've both solved and missed the whole point. He wrote it that way on purpose, paddle until you see the 'y', with no 'r' sound, then it makes perfect sense. Now all we have to do is narrow it down to which of the hundred rivers flow into the Colorado!"

Abigail Gates had been studying the scarab and the pottery, and had moved on to the tin-type photo. "The pottery appears to be Egyptian by the shape of the sand grains, and color, and the paint seems to be from the area, too." Ben picked up the pottery while she continued. "The tin-type appears in expected poor shape after all these years, but wait..." She took the tweezers and gently removed the paper backing. She exposed a piece of newspaper stock with writing across the partial article, for the story was truncated, and torn through the center. Their heads all came together in the center of the table.

Ben spoke first, "This is torn from the Arizona Gazette, and the paper is quite old, even before it was hidden." The row of capital letters was written in ink across the article, YNETRFG PNPGHF BAR ZVYR ABEGU.

"It is too short to do a letter count for most common letters," said Abigail.

Sadusky joined in, "Remember, this was an uneducated man, it won't be anything fancy."

Ben nodded, "A simple replacement cipher, all we need is a number to add to each letter to get the replacement."

"In the corner," said Riley, "the page number, but I can't make it out."

Grabbing for her glass, Abigail said, "It's the number 13, although it is smeared by the gum glue he used."

Ben already was writing, and placed the second half of the alphabet just under the first thirteen letters. After a couple moments he read, "Largest cactus one mile north."

"Ben, let's talk about this before we get in the car and race off."

Sadusky stood and said goodbye. "You have my private number, if there are things you need, I have a much larger budget than I did before the South Dakota trip." Riley suddenly had to go check on his luggage.

"We have had nearly a full week together, but there are things I want to see before we go racing off again."

"All right, what are the two most important places?"

Abigail thought for just a moment, "Chaco Canyon and the four corners."

"You do know there is really nothing to see at the four corners, it's just a brass plate on the ground with four states labeled."

"Exactly why I want to see it."

Ben started to make another argument, but she looked him directly in the eyes, and said, "Chaco! You promised!" Then she kissed the tip of her finger, and touched it to his nose.

Ben rubbed his chin, and said, "Why not. Whatever is there on the Colorado, has been laying around for a century, and no one else is looking for it. We'll stop at those places on the way to wherever it is we're going." After she kissed him, he whispered 'page 47'.

**CHAPTER 2**

Ben was just out of the shower, starting to dress in summer khakis, and he said, "What are you watching?"

Abigail was sitting on the bed in her honeymoon pajamas, nothing at all. "I thought I would check the weather report, but I can't seem to find one."

"Down here, I don't think they have them; it would be boring, every day, hot and dry, hot and dry."

"I hadn't thought of that."

As she passed him heading for the bathroom, he gave her a very friendly caress as she passed. After very gently swatting his hand away, she hopped into the shower and called out "I know that you just finished dressing, but I wouldn't mind some 'help' in the shower".

"I bet you would, but I don't think that we would leave this room as soon as Riley would like us to if I would do that." Ben opened the shade to get a glimpse of the morning sun, and saw two people, father and daughter, jumping into the swimming pool. The temperature was in the low seventies and climbing fast as he thought, must be mid-westerners, seeing two others beside the pool in heavy coats. They pulled their coats a little tighter, they must be locals.

They had turned in their rental car, a brand new Mustang with only a few miles on it, and with Sadusky's cash, bought a tan colored van with lots of space, and a side bench area for all of Riley's toys. He had brought computers, GPS equipment with satellite up-link, and some other toys including a printer, and extra battery packs. Ben decided he would miss the Mustang, especially the way it had a light on the bottom of that door that displayed a lighted horse silhouette on the ground, when he got out at night. He smiled as he thought back to the first day he drove it, they had made a wrong turn, or missed their turn, and the road had run straight east out of town, the pavement had just turned into sand, and their headlights illuminated the wide open desert. It was a holdover from his youth, he had always wanted a Mustang.

Abigail was washed, dressed and ready to go, with her hair tied into a pony tail, and sporting new tan coveralls. They tossed the rest of their gear in the van, and headed for Riley's motel, about a mile away. On the way, she placed her left hand on his knee, he just smiled. Ben idly thought that another mystery was a perfect fit for their relationship, and a good way to end the honeymoon. What a woman he had married! He could almost hear his father's voice in his head saying, "Now don't let her get away!"

Pushing an overloaded cart, Riley got stuck halfway through the door, but after a quick dance of annoyance, he pushed it through. Once ensconced in the back, he rapidly hooked up all his apparatus, including a printer and the satellite connection. "Are you ready Mr. Poole?"

"Powered up and ready to rock!" Riley looked at Abigail, and asked, "What is she doing?"

Abigail was busily tapping away at her computer, and didn't even hear the comment.

"Abigail had an idea, and I think it's a good one. Let's assume for the moment that someone or several persons of interest took the loot from those crates, what would they do with them? Simple answer, sell the stuff and get rich. She is setting up a search engine to go through all the published material, for about ten years after the Civil War, to find all the people who suddenly came into wealth. It might be a waste of time, but it might pinpoint an area where the loot went to. Your job, is to find a map of current Phoenix, and overlay it with an 1875 map of the city so we can find 'one mile north'."

"What are you going to do, Ben?"

"I think I'll drive toward the city..."

Riley grinned and dove into his task, after five minutes he said, "I found your maps, but the old one is linked to a website, so I can't just scan it in. By the way, originally this was the mining community of Wickenburg, just northwest of where we are, around the time of the Civil War. This area here was an irrigated farmland venture."

"If you can't hack the website, then just buy the map!"

"I hate it when you assume I can't do something..."

"Assume?"

"Yes, you just assume that I can or cannot do something as simple as hacking." Then a moment later he said, "Yes!"

On the screen in front of the driver, a map of the city popped up, then came the overlay in gray. A circle cropped up in red, indicating the approximate one mile area. "It was pretty easy, since the old map only showed one road, or dirt track, going north, and I overlaid the river and that road to get a correct sizing."

"Astounding, Mr. Poole, as always. Now we have to go south to get north, this city has really grown since those days."

The trip took only about fifteen minutes, they had to go around two of the small mountains that spot the city terrain, but traffic was light. Phoenix was unique in his mind with the small mountains within the city, which had just expanded around them. Now that spring training was over, there were fewer tourists. Ben pulled off the interstate at the nearest intersection, and drove through quiet city streets, toward the area. "Okay team, keep your eyes peeled for a tall cactus."

After less than a mile, Abigail pointed at a saguaro that stood well above the surrounding homes. Ben stopped the car, and they scanned in all directions, without seeing anything taller. "Did you know that the roots of these cacti go deep into the ground to find water, even taller than the trunk."

"Yes, Ben, and they grow much taller when they find a good source," said Abigail.

Arriving at the home where the majestic cactus stood, they delayed a moment, then Ben said, "We should probably knock."

Approaching the door as a group, Abigail stepped up the single step, and rapped loudly on the door. When no answer came, she looked around and found a recessed doorbell, after two rings and another knock, she swished her hands at the boys, and they all went to the tall cactus. All three started low and stayed low, Ben had reminded them that plants grow out, they do not grow up, except at the tip. After fifteen minutes of looking for even a tiny scar or imperfection, they came up empty. Riley was poking with a small screwdriver, and Ben with a pen, when Abigail pointed and said "Look!"

In a patch of mesquite bushes about thirty feet away toward the back of the house, was the base of an even larger cactus, broken off about three feet off the ground. Riley took off like a shot and literally dove into the bushes, letting out a scream as he did.

"Those bushes might have thorns..." Ben said, a little too late. Abigail and Ben raised the branches as best they could, and Riley quickly chirped out, "Got it!"

Standing up, he displayed the small metal snuff box? "Were there any scorpions or tarantulas in the hole?" asked Ben, hiding a smile.

Riley rolled his hand rapidly left and right, then smiled a silly smile. They hurried to the van, and drove away before any nosy neighbors, could get out of their night clothes, and come out. Looking back, no one was seen. Ben found a local park about a mile north, and swung in leaving the air conditioner going, it as usual was going to be a hot day.

Inside the can was a small piece of paper, yellowish brown in color, with the following printed on it:

"YOU CAN DRIVE A TRUCK THROUGH IT

BUT YOU CAN'T DRIVE A TRUCK TO IT

BRING LOTS OF WATER

TO GET WHERE Y'OUGHTER

DRIVE A TRUCK TO WHERE YOU GO

PARK THE TRUCK WAY DOWN BELOW"

"Hmm," said Ben, "This changes things a bit." "William could not have written this as early as we thought. They didn't have trucks until the turn of the century. He must have come back here much later than we thought to leave these clues."

"We don't really know what went on during those years, maybe he ended up in jail for a while."

"I got the impression from the talk with Sadusky, that William was trying to find the thieves, with wealthy people that can get you in a lot of trouble," Riley said.

"It doesn't matter, we are trying to find the cave, not what was in it, right?"

"Oh yeah, that," Riley said in a low voice.

Ben asked, "How about doing something else while we drive, Riley? We will need some detailed maps, preferably with river names listed, of the whole Colorado river system. Can you do that?" Riley just made a noise in response.

They decided to think about their next step, and the clue while they drove on, destination Chaco Canyon, 30 to 40 miles into New Mexico. Ben drove north on I-17, then turned onto I-40. It would take some time to get there, but the miles raced by on open roads, with high speed limits. By the time they reached the New Mexico border, they had decided a few things. The next place they had to go was very arid, and it was something natural, not man made. So it had a big hole in it.

Ben was thinking about large natural caves, Riley mentioned the huge sequoias, but Abigail reminded him that they did not grow in desert areas, much the opposite. Just as they turned off on the local road for the park, Abigail said, "How about the big stone arches in the national park?"

"How did you come up with that one?" Riley asked.

"It was easy, once I figured out why we couldn't drive a truck through it."

"Oh..." he said with a puzzled look on his face.

They easily followed the road to Chaco Canyon, but the road into the park area was not easy, a lot of it had a rippled look, and was like driving over a washboard. Ben was probably driving too fast, trying to get there, when he hit a cow grating, bars embedded in the road over a wash or gully, and the van lifted fully off the roadway a foot or so and nearly knocked Riley off his seat when it came down.

After an uneventful, slower trip the three got out of the vehicle, to take in the sights. The circular buildings stacked and bunched the way they were was fascinating. The population must have been large at one time, but the soil was now bone dry, mostly sand, and little vegetation grew there.

"I would have loved to see this spot, with the green vegetables and even the grasses blowing in the wind for the horses. The homes likely had a flat roof, and I assume there were additional living areas above." Ben looked around to see Riley scampering back to the van, and took Abigail's hand, raised it to his mouth, and kissed it. "Hey, look over there? Do you see the coyote?"

"I do, Ben. They are some magnificent creatures in this world, and to see them in their natural habitat is amazing."

Later after they had poured over the site and seen as much as Abigail wanted, they returned to the van to see Riley scanning the ruins.

"What are you doing, Riley? Are you going down to see the pueblos up close?"

"Probably not, I am setting up videography equipment to take three dimensional scans of the buildings. When I get the readings downloaded into my computer, along with star positions,, it will be as if I am in all the spots down there, and see the star correlations."

He attached three more cords, then said, "Ben, when we get to the motel tonight, tell me the mileage, so I can take a star map and make the minor distance correction."

"All right, what did you think of the sight?"

Riley paused thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "I don't want to live there, no electricity."

"Tell me if anything points to Krypton." Riley ignored him.

They stayed in a motel 12.7 miles west of the canyon, with no pool but air conditioning. Abigail talked about the canyon until Riley fell asleep sitting up, then they retired for the night.

In their room, as they were completing their packing, Ben said, "We'll take highway 191 north and stop at the four corners in a couple hours".

"That sounds good, Ben." Abigail says. "Let's go pick up Riley."

Ben and Abigail left their room and walked to Riley's room. Knocking on the door, they hear a muffled thump and a voice saying "I'm up...really!"

"It sounds more like your down Riley." Ben states.

The door opens and Riley peeks out "Ha ha ha...very funny."

After they packed up the van, and go on the road, Riley starts to squirm.

"Riley? Did you forget to go to the bathroom before we left?" Abigail asks.

"No, not really...I am just trying to get a bit more sleep. You know trying to get comfy in a van like this is hard."

"True. After all Ben and I have to best seats in the van."

After getting to the Four Corners, Ben walks about a little, seeing the simple store fronts hawking their goods, if that label could be applied. He watches Abigail and Riley moving around the brass plate, hopping from one state to another, and laughing. It was good to hear her laugh. They took copious pictures of their feet in different positions, until they got hot and thirsty. As the pair walked back, both of them pointed up in the air, there was one small cloud high above them, and it was raining, but nothing hit the ground. It evaporated in the hot, dry air before it landed. When they reached the van, they both grabbed a bottle of water and took a big drink.

Riley then climbed in, holding several items of questionable value in his hands, and they proceeded back to the highway.

"How did your evening sky viewing go last night, Riley?"

"Fine, just fine. I got all the sky mapped before I brushed my teeth. When we get home, I will plug all the data into my large computer, and find out if the dwellers at Chaco had star alignments."

Ben just smiled. "I can't think of anywhere else to go, so let's proceed up to Arches National Park. It is pretty much on our way to the upper Colorado, and I would like to see it anyway. I've never been there.

"I found this really old hand drawn map of the Colorado river system, but it does not really match the actual river system. It was available at the time Wright was there, before any actual maps were available." Riley handed the print out of a very old map of the Colorado to Abigail per her request. He had printed it to four sheets of paper, and taped them together. After just a few minutes, Abigail said, "I think I have found something!" She pointed to the undetailed map, and said, "Remember what Wright wrote, the three circles in the wivver, look at these. Not you, Ben!"

Riley looked at what he had not seen before, three of the tributaries curved out, then back in again, to form rough circles. Her finger stabbed at the middle one.

Ben pondered driving a truck through these circles, but it really made no sense. They would have to find something else you could drive a truck through.

About four hours later, Ben dropped off Riley and Abigail, to rent some rooms in a motel that clearly had vacancy, no cars were parked in the lot. He headed into town and returned with some supplies. He also bought two backpacks, and six large water bottles, which went into the refrigerator until morning, and two he put in the freezer, all that could fit.

"We'll need those tomorrow, just for a change, it's going to be hot and dry."

They stopped at the ranger station to pay fees, and get maps, then drove directly to the main feature of the park, the one seen in all the pictures, a huge stone arch, big enough to drive a truck through, but you would have a heck of a time driving a truck up there, even if you could avoid arrest. There were several park rangers around. They put on their packs, loaded the cold water bottles into them, and Ben stuck several small tools, and a clothes hanger into his. They made the climb in good time, and talked about how much water they had already consumed. When they reached the end of the trail, they were alone. Scurrying around the arch itself, they could find nothing that indicated a hiding place for a clue. Abigail and Riley got down on their bellies, and meticulously tapped and poked, every crack and line in the two ends of the base. Ben looked through the arch and saw a rock which looked out of place. It was darker than the surrounding stone and set into a small natural niche a ways off the path. He moved towards it and then called out to the others. "Over here!"

By the time Abigail and Riley got up, and over there, Ben had pulled out the hanger, and twisted it open, to make a wire with a curled end on it. There was a round hole on the left, with a larger rectangular hole on the opposite side. The twisted end slid in about four inches, then hit something, another push went further in, and a second effort popped another metal box out of the larger hole. Ben snatched it up, folded the wire, stuffing it into a pocket just as two rangers approached.

"Having some trouble?" which Ben took to mean, 'why are you off the path?'.

"No sir, my watch just slipped off, but I found it," he shook his wristwatch to show he got it back. They all immediately started moving down the path while the rangers poked about, looking for signs of mischief or perhaps spray paint.

They chugged water upon return to the car, then left the parking lot immediately. After seeing the other sights, they exited the park with no problem, and returned to the motel in the town of Moab, for a second night.

Riley had pulled a small table into the center of the room, closed the window shades, and placed the best light next to it in Ben's room. Ben came over with ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches for all, plus lots more water. The metal box was in the center of the table, Ben pushed it over to Abigail. She opened it with a little difficulty, and pulled out a small scroll of paper, while rusty metal decorated the table top. There were six digits, 206742, followed by a line of capital letters:

RKGVATHVFU LBHE GBEPURF

Smiling, Ben said, "I think we know this code." In a few minutes, he wrote out 'Extinguish your torches'.

Looking at the original paper, Abigail said, "Six numbers, could be a date."

"The date he found the cave?" asked Riley.

"No that date would be unimportant to someone following his clues, someone who new him..."

"Birthday!" Ben and Abigail said together, followed by Riley a second later, "Birthday… whose?"

"William of course, only his friends or family would know it."

"Do we know it?"

"Not yet. Let's look in his little booklet."

Abigail dug it out of some pocket, and opened it, but no written dates were seen. After a moment, she found a line that said he was released from the army when he was 18. "So eighteen years before 1865, would be 1847."

"Then the date can only be February 26th, or June 22nd."

Riley said, "I vote for June!" Then he mumbled something about being frozen.

"So we are agreed, we have to be at the middle circle in about ten days."

They planned a little for the next day, but the heat had taken it's toll, and they headed off to bed before dark. While Ben lay next to his beautiful bride, he said, "I think William must have made that rock out of clay, and then put the box in while it was soft. It was a bit crumbly, and darker than the other rocks..." His voice trailed off, but Abigail hadn't heard him, she was already sound asleep.

**CHAPTER 3**

The coffee pot was wafting its fragrance into the room when Ben walked in, bearing a big bag of breakfast tacos, and a jug of some juice mix. Before he could close the door, Riley popped into the room. They ate first with relish and then cleared the table, while Ben stated the obvious, "Now all we have to do is figure out which direction we are headed."

Abigail put all the items on the table, including several maps that Riley had printed up, all showing different aspects of the Colorado river system, and its watershed, as well as the irrigation systems. It was a lot to take in, and unfortunately, many of the tributaries were not named. Riley let the others try to absorb this large amount of information, while he finished the last taco, and drank another large glass of the juice. It wasn't very good, but it was wet; he kept thinking about all the water they drank yesterday, and how he was still thirsty. Ben had been smart to freeze a couple bottles before they left, they were cool and delicious upon returning from the arch, and almost all had been consumed.

"I can't really make heads or tails out of all this. So many of the river systems are similar to the other maps, but there are variations," Ben said.

"Perhaps it is because these date from different periods, certainly only this current satellite image shows nothing that looks like the three circles Wright talked about," Abigail added.

Then Riley reached under the table, saying, "I had to hack another website to get this one, but I couldn't match it to these." It was an old, hand drawn map, with few features except the river system, on a yellowed background. The river lines were distinct, and smooth, nothing like any of the actual pictures, or accurate map renderings. As Abigail and Ben saw, there were three distinctly circular areas, where two tributaries would bend out, then almost come back together. Three circles.

For the next hour Abigail and Ben kept swapping and turning the maps trying to find some semblance of comparison, and having no luck. All during the time, Riley shared with them other stories he had read about treasures found or hidden in the Grand Canyon, and other places along the river.

"I came across an article in an old newspaper dating back to the 1920's, that claims were made by two Smithsonian archaeologists, of mixed Egyptian and oriental treasures, including mummies and a Buddha about 42 miles from El Tovar Crystal Canyon. The Smithsonian denied everything, including the scientist's existence. They claimed it was just a hoax to drive up newspaper sales." Riley cleared his throat, and went on, "Another story I came across was about a guy named Forrest Fenn, who says he buried two million dollars of gold and jewels in the Rocky Mountains, and then left clues for people to go hunt for it. It has never been found. There are also stories of artifacts in the Canyons of the Ancients in Towaoc..."

"Thank you, Riley, but this is going nowhere!" Ben stood and starting pacing in the small room. "The old map shows three rough circles, and on one of the circles is printed "White", but this does not match the more modern maps which show no circles, and the White river is in the next state, Colorado. In that map there is a small loop formed by the head waters, that could be called a circle, but nothing else close." He rubbed his chin and kept pacing.

"Why are you talking about the White river, Ben?" asked Abigail.

"Perhaps I am way off base, but lots of these rivers have tribal names, and the southern ones have Spanish names. Then I thought of his speech impediment, he would pronounce his name 'White', not Wright! I can't decide which lead to follow..."

"Let's just check out both, we have more than a week before his birthday."

"Good idea, Riley, let's go!"

Opting to head for the Colorado White river first was a longer trip, but the roads from where they were made it seem the easier route. Several hours later, they made a pit stop, and filled the van's gas tank. Ben talked to some local fishermen, and came back with an unhappy look. They continued to where Riley had pinpointed the area, but as Ben had been told, the area was low and grassy, and the stream was quite shallow. The fishermen had told him they would have to go a good ways back the way they had come to put in any kind of larger boat. After checking out the three roads in the area, all agreed they had to head back to Utah.

Abigail drove over the next stretch, while Riley tapped away merrily on the computer keys in the back of the van, "I could drive, if you guys get tired, or something."

Together came the answers, "No thank you, Riley!"

While the miles passed beneath them, Riley would call out items of interest he found. "Did you know that Phoenix didn't become Arizona's capitol until 1908, with a whopping fifty five hundred people. I also found an article in the Arizona Gazette, which is now called the Republic, a story about two men named Jordan ans Kinkaid, they claimed they had found a treasure, but it was taken away from them!"

"Thank you, Riley!" which he took to mean 'shut up'.

The miles passed slowly, and the roads were less well traveled. Abigail toyed with her computer, and said, "I have found an article of interest using my search engine, even though the program is less than half done. It is hard to believe how many small towns and small town newspapers there were or are on the east coast. This one is from the Hales Corner, in Hales, North Virginia. It records the growth of a town called Recovery, which sprang up about ten years after the Civil War was over. There were eight men who fought in the war, all from the same small town, three fought for the union, the others for the south, and Robert E. Lee. Two recounted a tale of having actually seen each other during a skirmish outside of Chattanooga; they looked down their rifle sights at the same time, and both recognized the other. One told how he bore down his sight on the rebel, then both men changed their aim and fired in a different direction. An article was written in another paper that six of the eight men survived the war, only to return to a town that had been burned to the ground, none had survived. It is said that these men were all masons, of the same lodge, and they decided to rebuild the town in another area. They built homes and very profitable businesses, all had gotten married, and the new town prospered hugely, even though they had nothing of value to begin their new lives with."

"The article says the story ended as 'to be continued', but never was; the names were withheld because of privacy."

To pass the time, Riley said, "I have all the clues needed to find the Forrest Fenn treasure.

'Gone in there alone

'Keep my secret

'Where warm water halt

'Home of Brown...'

Thank you, Riley, that's enough. We are not hunting for a fake treasure!" Ben said.

"How about the treasure of Marble Canyon? In 1909, it was said Egyptian urns were found, dating to the reign of Zapnath, also known as Joseph. The story says the urns are on display in the Smithsonian, but they deny ever having or displaying anything like this."

"This sounds too similar to Wright's story, so it might be a retelling," Abigail commented.

After another stop, when Abigail took the wheel again, the landscape had turned gray, it reminded Ben of the moon. There was some vegetation in the distance but the land nearby seemed dead and desolate.

They had crossed into Utah traveling at good speed, on highway 40, and within a short time they crossed a larger bridge spanning the Green River, outside the city of Jensen. Ben thought idly, staring out the window, that this was a much larger river than they saw, the last time they crossed the Colorado. Abigail commented that she was seeing signs for so many other places she wanted to visit, like Dinosaur National Monument, and they would have to find their way back there some day.

Stopping for lunch in Roosevelt, they resupplied their food in a food market, and Ben found another store. Returning, he was carrying a large boxed tent, with another sack of other implements. These were stuffed in the rear of the van, over Riley's complaints, and they were on the move again.

Upon arriving in Duchesne, they left the main road, and were soon on dirt back roads.

Eventually, the land started to rise, and the terrain became more rocky, soon there were trees, and some sparse grass. Just as Riley announced they were almost there based on satellite imagery, Ben spotted a circular stone hut sitting atop a small hill. As they approached it, the river came into view. "This is now called the Duchesne River, by the way," said Riley, "not the White river."

It was approaching evening when they looked inside the igloo like hut, one could crawl inside on all fours, but it was already passed sundown, leaving the western sky ablaze. After a long day of travel, they decided to head back to town and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was William Wright's birthday, and Ben suspected that had meaning, based on its inclusion in the clue. The drive back was a bit difficult with no obvious road sides, but the starlight and moon allowed them to see well enough. They found a small motel on the outskirts of town, and booked lodging for two nights. Ben got on his phone while it was charging, and called Sadusky. He asked, "How's the golfing?"

"I am here on business, but I have visited a few local golf courses. What do you want?

They talked for nearly a half hour, while Ben filled in how they had spent their time, and commented on the newest clue they had found. They ate a light meal, and turned in for the night.

Morning came brightly, and they packed up after breakfast, and headed back to the river. The stone igloo was pronounced free of vermin, and only then would Riley enter, pushing several bags of equipment and batteries ahead of him. They grabbed a quick lunch, then all climbed into the igloo; it was hot outside, but hotter inside. Riley had set up a camera, recording in 360 degrees. Going in and out regularly to cool off in the near hundred degree outside temperature, but until about two in the afternoon, it was just hot and partially dark inside. Ben stabbed a finger at a spot of light on the ground close to the western wall, throughout the afternoon they watched it in shifts, until just at sundown. A brilliant spot near the base of the south wall flared into brilliance.

Ben looked closely at it, from the side, "It is a chip of mica, pressed into the clay used to fill the holes between the stones. Did you know that the tribes in this area revered mica for its reflective properties?"

As he spoke, the tiny light winked out. Riley reached for a flashlight, but Ben stopped him, saying, "Remember the clue, extinguish your torches." They sat there in the hot igloo, while the evening breezes already had begun to cool the outside to below 90. Riley had just started to complain about getting out of there, when Ben stabbed a finger at the wall, pointing at a very tiny spot of light. "There it is," Ben said, "What we have here, if I am not mistaken, is the light of the north star. It is not the brightest star, but it is the only one that stays in the same place. Did you know that this star was prized by ancient mariners because..."

Abigail was already out of the sweat box, followed by Riley, dragging his bags of gear. Riley was commenting why Wright didn't use the moon instead of the north star, "The moon is on a twenty-seven and a half day orbit, and besides it wobbles like 6% in its rotation..."

"Yes, Riley, that is why we only get eclipses about four times a year, instead of every month." she replied.

Ben stabbed the tip of his knife into the pinprick of light, and felt it go in, then the thin veneer of clay cracked off, exposing a hand cut slab of rock. With a few more knife cuts, the rock slab came out in his hand. He could feel the bottom edge was polished, and the right side was about three times as thick as the left. Cupping it in his arm, he stepped out into the pleasantly cool air. They returned to the motel to examine their find, turning it over and over, looking at the rough sandstone. Only the bottom edge had been polished and shaped, tapered to a narrow edge, but it just looked like an imprecise line, that hooked to the side on the thicker part of the stone. Staring at it didn't help, so they decided to call it a night, after another round of drinks after their thirsty day.

In the middle of the night, Ben sat straight up in bed. He fumbled around in the dark, then took the stone into the shower stall. He laid a flattened brown paper bag on the floor and dowsed the stone with water. He shook it to remove excess water, then pressed the polished edge onto the paper. Then he set the stone on the floor of the shower, and outlined the liquid line, it was a river valley, he was sure, and the hook at the end was the 'rye', in Wright's speech, the 'y' in the river. The hook on the end was much thicker, a larger river. With some difficulty, he fell back asleep.

Awakening just after dawn, Abigail heard a sound outside, and peaked through the shade, just in time to see a slender man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, but his face was covered with a ski mask. Before she could do anything, he was in a nondescript sedan speeding away. A glance at their tires showed her two were flat, and she guessed the others were also, since the van did not look tilted. She confirmed her assumption before she woke Ben up. Before she could tell him anything, he was shouting, "You have to look at this. Get Riley."

"There's no hurry, Ben, we have four flat tires."

"What?" he said, poking his head out of the bathroom door.

They had plenty of time to pack and eat, while they waited for a tow truck to show up with four new tires, pre-mounted on new rims.

Ben had already shown them the imprint he had made in the middle of the night, saying that it was the river, and his perception about the 'rye',at the end of the river. Riley was finished washing his hands when he looked into the shower stall, and exclaimed, "Look at that!"

The stone laying in the stall had rough cut letters now visible. "The water must have dissolved a salt and sand and clay mixture, that was hidden before! The letters read, 'Other Side'.

By noon, the van was packed, with four new tires on it, and Sadusky's team had hooked an eighteen foot tri-hull boat, strapped to a trailer, behind it. They drove back up to the place they had left the previous night, but it had changed. The rock igloo had been all but obliterated, stones and chunks of clay mortar were strewn across fifty square feet, there was no sign the building had ever been there. Much of the rock had either been driven away, or thrown in the river, and then the area was swept to look natural. The team of FBI agents helped remove the boat from the trailer, and with some difficulty launched it. Gear and personal items, as well as food and supplies were stowed aboard. It was well planned to get a boat with shallow draft, the river here was little more than a wide stream.

Handing the keys for the van to the agent named Mike, they boarded and set off slowly. The van with the trailer disappeared over the edge with the black SUV driven by the other three agents.

Riley busied himself, setting up his computer under the front hull, and attaching the uplink to the light post beside the small upper cabin, with room for only a driver and one other to sit. After a half hour, the stream had widened, and Ben increased the speed a little. Riley came out, and stood there holding the brown paper bag, with the water map. "This doesn't match the actual river we are on, no matter how I turn it or place it."

"I think we can assume, Riley, that he had no real knowledge of what the river looked like, the only thing we need to do is head toward the 'y', and look across the other river, up on the bank, somewhere."

"But we aren't even going to hit the Colorado River, the next waterway is the Green River."

Ben smiled and said, "We have to remember that these clues are a century old, you already told us that the river names differ from the old maps to the new. I looked on our road atlas, and it looks like the Green river is much bigger that the Colorado this far north. Maybe this used to be called the Colorado before the boys that carved out the states, got to rename everything. If so, we would be calling it the Utah river, so that name must have come later, long after Wright was gone."

Riley, somewhat mollified, went back below mumbling to himself. Just at that point, gunshots rang out over the quiet stretch of river.


	2. Chapter 4 - 6

**Chapter 4**

They dove for cover.

After a few minutes, Ben poked his head up, and said, "They weren't trying to shoot us, it was a warning to turn back, which of course, we are not going to do."

"But..."

Ben picked up a rubber dumdum bullet from the floor of the craft, handed it to Riley, and pointed at the prow of the boat. "If those were real bullets, we would be sinking. He pointed to the spots where there were dents, and the paint was smeared. They all scanned the banks, all sides, and saw no one. Only a minute later, Abigail spotted a large, downed pine tree, still green, laying across the waterway, almost to the other side.

"Oh no," said Ben, "Remember the cow stanchions in Chaco Canyon, hang on!" He gunned the seventy-five horsepower engine, aimed for the smaller end of the tree, and ran right through it. The pine pushed to the side and did not slow the boat at all. Just then, fist sized rocks were hurled from above and behind, all but one missed the craft, the other left a dent in the transom. The trip was uneventful for a good two hours after that. Ben had had to reduce their speed several times when the river had a few rills, and got shallow, but although the motor kicked up some silt, the shallow draft of the boat got them through.

At lunch, Ben offered to make the coffee, and when he served it with Abigail's sandwiches, and the two bags of chips Riley had picked up, Riley smiled broadly and said, "Wow, this is really good coffee!"

"Well, first we're kind of having a picnic, and second I used fresh water," Ben pointed to the river.

Riley almost spit it out, then swallowed it remembering he had already drunk most of the cup. When Ben saw his expression, he added, "It tastes better than fluorinated water, and besides, it was boiled." Riley grumbled a bit, then poured another cup, and started devouring the potato chips.

A few minutes later, Ben picked up his cell phone, and tried to call Sadusky. He had no reception, so he handed it to Riley. Within a minute Riley handed it back, and it had five bars. "You are still the man, Mr Poole!"

Riley smiled broadly while Ben gave Sadusky a quick report about their mishaps. The sun was nearly overhead, and the heat of the day was rapidly building, Abigail reached under a seat and pulled out a bag. She pulled a straw hat our for herself, passed an Indiana Jones hat to Ben, and gave Riley a ten gallon cowboy hat. When Riley put it on, it covered his eyes, but Ben traded lids with him, and everything was good. Abigail thought he looked pretty good, driving the boat with one hand. They traded smiles, almost hearing what the other was thinking. At one point, Ben asked Riley, "Are you still seeing that girl you met at Mount Rushmore?"

"I didn't want to move there, and she had a job she really liked..."

After another hour, Riley took over as pilot, and increased the speed a little bit, the water was wider here, and seemed deeper.

Ben put up one foot on the edge, and said with a twang in his voice, "Gotta get me some real boots!"

After a little while, Ben said, "I was just thinking, this is the area where Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on their incredible journey. The only map they had to go on was a huge empty land, a thousand miles across, and the only feature was a roughly straight line, from top to bottom, the Colorado River, or so they thought, since the Mississippi was a pretty straight line from north to south. Imagine their surprise in encountering river after unknown river, except for all the tribes that lived in these parts of course. Even Sacajawea hadn't come this far, I don't think. They found anything but a straight river to go anywhere."

A few moments passed, then Ben added, "Jefferson is probably my favorite president, after Lincoln, of course. I fondly remember what Kennedy said when he had a collection of high brows at the white house. 'I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone."

Riley thought about it for a minute, then smiled broadly.

"It just occurred to me," Ben mused, "Jefferson feared colonization of the west by other countries, especially Spain, who already had a foothold in California. He commissioned a General Wilkinson, name ring a bell?"

"Mitch?' asked Riley.

"May be a relative. Anyway the general chose Captain Pike, who named a mountain after himself, was sent on a separate trip, to further scout the area. He did not get very far, he was arrested by Spanish authorities, and shipped back to Louisiana."

Abigail added, "It was also Jefferson who was incremental getting the Gadsden Purchase."

"Now that one I know," Riley piped in, "Most of New Mexico and Arizona were bought from Mexico, including Phoenix, so that the United States would have an easy way to get to California, without having to cross the Rockies."

They traveled in silence for a while, each absorbing the stark beauty of the landscape, all around. There was little evidence of the imprint of man on this somewhat desolate area.

"How long until we hit the Green River, Ben?" Abigail asked.

"Don't ask me, ask Mr. Wizard," he answered, pointing at Riley.

Abigail took the wheel, while Riley pulled out his tiny laptop, fiddled for a few moments, the said, "We have made pretty good time, but if we want to get there before dark, we had better speed up, we haven't quite hit the half way point yet."

Abigail pushed the throttle down until they were making a pretty large waves, crashing on the shore. The river had gotten increasingly wider and deeper, and they hadn't found any more rapids or rills. Riley sighed as he pulled down his new hat a little more tightly, "All the comforts of home, drinking river water, using a portapotty, and basking in the hot sun."

Ben tossed him a tube of sun screen, saying, "You better put some on, you're not fully cooked yet, but you get double sun on the water."

After another mile of river, Riley recapped the sunscreen, and asked, "I have been thinking about old Mr. Wright, Ben, why didn't he try to come back here?"

"I have spent some quiet time thinking about that, too. As far as he was concerned, he had removed the treasure, but maybe he left something behind, to show he had found it. The loss of the wealth was one thing, but he wanted to prove he had found it, not just some old American Indian stuff.

Based on the booklet, I assume he found the treasure some time around 1880, and it was between 1905 and 1920 before he could return, whether it was health, or family, we will never know. When he came back, I am guessing he intended to return to the site, but was prevented from doing it, or physically threatened. Since he could not return, he came up with the clues, and hid them."

"What about the stone house?"

"Again, best guess, the stone hut may have already been there, and he fixed it to give the clues. My guess is that's when he was grabbed, put on a train for the east coast, perhaps under arrest, we will never likely know. He died around 1937, and the booklet was kept by his family until there were no more descendants. If they ever thought about going out there, it did not occur, and then Essie was the last one."

They sat quietly for a while, while Abigail drove the boat down river. Abigail asked, "What happened with you and that young lady you spent so much time with in South Dakota?"

"We talk on the phone, now and then, but she loves her home and job, there, so..."

"You're still young, something might happen."

After a time, Riley drove the boat for several hours, then Ben took over again. When they were approaching the Green River junction, the sun was low in the sky, and they were already in shadow. "I have found the 'rye'," Ben quipped. Lust before entering the Green River, Ben slowed the craft, and brought it to the north shore. "There is a good spot to camp on the bank, it doesn't look too rocky. When the camp tent was pitched on top of a thick blanket, to give them a little comfort, Ben went down to the boat, and pulled out a large rat trap, cocked it, and set it on top of the boat rope attached to the front. The rear end was attached to the anchor, wedged behind two large rocks.

"What were you doing?"

Ben smiled, "I bought us a little insurance; in the morning let me untie the rope."

While Abigail and Riley prepared a less than elegant dinner, Ben set up the sleeping rolls. He looked out the tent flap, then removed a fuzzy pink toy snake from his pocket, and tucked it into Riley's bedroll. While they were eating, Ben commented, "We should probably check around the tent, there are plenty of snakes in this area."

"Snakes," squeaked Riley, "Why didn't you tell me before? I wouldn't have come!" While they ate Ben talked again about Rocky Mountain rattlers, until Abigail gave him the look.

When the fire was doused, they got ready to sleep, and piled into the tent. Abigail was already in her sleeping bag when Riley climbed in to his. He shrieked and yanked out the fuzzy snake, while Ben held the lantern, and grinned broadly. When Abigail stopped chuckling, they drifted off to sleep.

Somewhere around two thirty in the morning, someone screamed outside the tent. Ben was out of the flap in an instant, and yelled, "Stop or I will shoot you!"

After the rat trap was removed from the man's hand, and his hands were tied behind his back, Ben turned the lantern back on. He did not struggle, and was very quiet until the lantern was lit, "Hey, where's your gun?"

Ben patted his empty pocket, and covered the man's head with a cloth bag. A few minutes search found the battery powered land rover he had silently ridden in on. Abigail lashed his bound hands to the back of the rover, while he was sitting on the ground. Ben called Sadusky's number, and it was answered immediately by another agent. They would send a chopper to pick him up in the morning.

Later, when the man was interrogated, he refused to give his name, or tell who had sent him. He stated for the record that he had not harmed anyone, nor intended to. No weapons had been found on his person or vehicle.

The campers awoke upon hearing the helicopter land, but it was gone before they rose. The gear was stowed, after a light breakfast, then they boarded, and crossed the Green River. Riley asked him why he was crossing the river. "Wright said we could see the 'rye', we can't see this side, so..."

"Also," Abigail added, "The message on the rock said 'other side'."

The boat was tied front and back, even thought the river did not seem to have a very strong flow. Ben received a text from Sadusky saying they had the prisoner, and were making plans to meet them on top of the high river bank. Taking only hats, gloves, and water, the trio began to ascend the river bank.

"Shouldn't we look down here first, Ben?

Abigail responded first, "The cave was above water a hundred years ago. It was probably wider and faster then, look at the river banks, and how eroded they are. A hundred years ago this river may have been a hundred feet higher up."

Since the climb was mostly vertical, it was tougher going. Riley spotted a weathered woman's purse wedged in the rocks, and pulled it out. The wallet was missing, but it had a few letters and a small purse with a few coins in it. The newest dated from 1951. Riley tucked it into his knapsack, and kept going. They were sweating heavily before they were up twenty to thirty feet. Ben noticed some footprints left in the dirt, hardened with age, but they kept climbing. At around eighty feet up the river bank, Riley just started to complain, when Ben said, "Look!"

There was a flatter area, that had once been a small pool, perhaps seven feet across, with a large boulder at the back edge. He could see the bank had been cut away behind it. This was what Wright had described in the booklet. Riley moved ahead of Ben, to get there first. "Looks like we have a lot of digging to do."

Just then they heard a voice from above, Sadusky called down, "We brought a little help, Ben, but that guy from your camp last night isn't talking." He leaned over the edge, about thirty feet up.

A heavy metal arm, with a thick metal cable, swung out over the ledge, and two burly agents began climbing down. When the motor kicked in, to lower the cable, there was no more talking, it was too loud. By the time the men had climbed down, Ben and Riley had moved two sizable rocks off to the side; they were careful not to drop them below, the boat was right under them. The cable had an attachment like old fashioned ice tongs, two points that pinched together when the cable tightened up. One of the agents wore a head piece to communicate with those above. They used small shovels to remove the excess dirt and sand. They were all covered with grit before the final stone was pulled away, revealing the cave mouth behind. The last of the rubble was shoveled away, while the cable was brought back up, to get a different attachment, just in case they found something.

When they all entered the cave, they expected something, but there was nothing, no inscriptions, no wooden tables that Wright had said they had left behind. Riley stubbed his toe on something in the dirt, and picked it up. He brought it to Ben, and they looked at it in day light. "Look at the edge, it still has some gold paint on it, and this could be the head of Osiris, or Anubis, as they were portrayed in ancient Egypt."

"Yeah, looks like those other pieces we already found..." Riley said with a hint of boredom in his voice,

"That's right! It means we have found the original cave!" Riley perked up a bit.

They examined the walls and found tool marks, but the back of the cave was smooth, and tapered. It seemed unremarkable at first glance. The others had given up tapping the walls, and digging in the dirt to find a solid stone floor, when a flash of light from one of the lanterns came from a low point on the back wall. Ben got down low, he could not get any dirtier, and saw a chip of mica, embedded in the back wall, about a foot off the floor. Taking his pick ax, he tapped around the outside of the mica, a few inches away. When nothing happened, he hit the wall again with considerable force. Nothing was revealed. He backed away, and hit the chip of mica directly with the pick ax. The pick went in deeply, and there was a rumbling sound, followed by the entire back wall crumbling, and the dust belching out of the cave mouth. Ben was coughing and he tried to dig himself out from under the rubble that had fallen away, then heard the cries of delight coming from behind him. He was the last to see what he had discovered, when he finally cleared all the dust and sand from his eyes. The lantern light danced on the gold, silver and bejeweled items that were hidden behind the wall, but Ben had eyes only for the large map that covered the wall, it was larger than six by four feet. Ben took perhaps twenty pictures of it with his phone before he was aware of the commotion behind him. The hidden cave was at least three times as big as the front part of the cave.

The agent in touch with those above was talking with an excited voice, while the other three moved among the treasure hoard with glee. "These things predate the templar treasure by thousands of years. This sarcophagus is from the zeroeth dynasty," Abigail said to no one in particular.

Ben turned back to the map, it was unlike anything he had ever seen. The central land mass looked like Central America, but the land was more than twice as wide as it is today. There was a partially circular bite taken out of the enlarged Yucatan peninsula. A meteor crater, he thought. The Florida peninsula was larger and the Keys were all dry land. There was a large island that stood off from a bay, where New Orleans now stood. Along the top of the map, covering the top part of what would become the United States, was a solid irregular line, painted white. Ben thought about the ice shelf, as it receded after the ice age.

There were other land masses depicted; in the Pacific, a large land mass that ended around where Hawaii was, extended down, and off the map. Cuba was shown as much larger, and in the center of the Atlantic Ocean another large land mass filled most of the area between Africa and South America. Another land mass appeared below this, Ben wondered if it had been Antarctica in long lost times. On all the land masses, there were glyphs, those in the Atlantic area differed from those on the Pacific coastlines. In the area where they stood, just below the ice line, a piece of jewel, or glass was embedded, and there were more symbols written on the map. It told him this spot was important to the people who had met here, and sealed up this map behind the false wall.

**Chapter 5**

Ben removed his cell phone and suggested that Riley and Abigail do the same. The artifacts ranged from the mundane to the magnificent. There were statuettes made from simple hand made pottery clay, there were jugs and a large urn, some were sealed. There were gold articles and some small bejeweled weapons. There were paintings, and many items wrapped in cloth or packed in wooden boxes. It was hard to take it all in, because the items came from so many different places. Canoes that were tiny, cups that were hand made, and painted with pictures depicted people of many races, and even a pile of coconuts. They spent at least forty-five minutes photographing everything in the cave. Their phones all needing recharging after the photographs were sent to Sadusky. Ben also sent a selected group of photographs to his parents, mostly of the large, hand drawn, parchment map on the wall, with many close ups of the symbols. His phone died just after he received the 'all delivered' message. While Riley went back down to the boat to recharge all their phones, Ben asked the FBI men to contact those on top of the cliff to make ready the crane. It took the better part of four hours to carefully wrap, and catalog everything they removed from the cave. Two more men came down from the rim, to help with the careful removal of all the items. While this trove had enormous historical significance, there was not an abundance of items that would be envied by treasure hunters, with the possible exception of a gold sarcophagus. The statues were unique, with many styles and types Ben and Abigail had never seen before. The last item was the map, Abigail carefully removed it from the frame, which crumbled easily to the touch, the wood they used was not treated and had totally desiccated over the centuries. They had the agents up above make a cage of polished wooden slats to protect it during transport, and then slid it vertically, into the back of their van, which had been driven to this point, from where they had left it.

Riley clambered up over the edge of the canyon, puffing from the exertion, and handed the charged phones back to their owners. As soon as Ben turned it on, multiple messages popped up. He put his arm around Abigail, and they just took a moment to absorb the beauty of the river valley, and the incredible spot they stood in.

Ben looked at Abigail, smiled, and said, "Maybe I shouldn't have sent all this to mom, she's still working at Cibola."

The first message he opened said, 'Ben, this is the most fantastic thing I have ever seen! The map, the magnificent map, is unique and wonderful! Call me while you are looking at it." He replied, 'Okay.'

"Dad sent three messages, although I think it was only intended to be one. He probably hit the send key by accident a couple times. He is all excited, and wants to see the stuff, when it gets to the east coast."

Abigail had not sent any messages to anyone, her family had taken a dim view of her treasure hunting activities. She just smiled and squeezed his hand, Ben's family was certainly unique.

Sadusky walked over to them, dressed in casual clothes, something Ben had not seen before. His flattened narrow brimmed hat had three fishing lures stuck in it, and he carried several separated fishing poles, and a large tackle box. "I have decided to help the best way I can. I will take the boat down river to a spot of my choosing, on a day of my choosing." He smiled broadly, and held out his hand. Ben passed him the boat key, and asked, "Our gear?"

"It has already been brought up, and stored in the van."

"Great, what about you?" Ben queried.

"They used the crane to send all my food and gear down to the boat, and I kept the tent, just so you know. Now I will ride the crane down, and I would rather not hear from you three for several days. It could take a while to get back to civilization, I don't like to travel too quickly." He looked around to see if anyone was in earshot, then said in a low voice that only Abigail and Ben could hear, I put two tracking devices on the truck, one inside, the other outside. And just because of the trouble you've had already, I put a brand new type of tracker inside that big urn, stuck under the edge so it can't be seen. It turns on at random times during two hour windows, and sends out a brief signal for only a few seconds, then shuts off again. Very difficult to detect unless you listen for it over long periods."

As Sadusky stepped on the platform, and hooked safety straps to his belt, Riley grumbled behind them, "I wish he'd told me I could ride that thing up the bank..."

After a few minutes, Sadusky waved to them, and pulled out into the current. It took another half hour to repack the crane into the large truck, and the black medium sized truck was sealed up, containing everything from the cave, except the map.

Abigail, Ben and Riley set off, following dirt roads and the trucks, but stopped before nightfall at a motel along highway forty. The trucks were planning to drive well into the night before they stopped, with the medium size truck heading east, while the crane was returned to Denver.

Ben sent a text to his mother, saying he would call in the morning when he was fresh, they were all exhausted, and needed sleep. The night had passed in deep slumber at the quiet motel, and they awoke somewhat late to get breakfast.

Riley volunteered to drive, so that Ben could sit in the back, next to the map when he called his mother. The first message he saw when he looked at the phone was flashing 'urgent', from Sadusky. "Ben, the truck has been hijacked outside of Steamboat Springs. I don't know how, but I will find out. Somebody does not want me to have a vacation!" The second message was, "Don't go after it, we will handle it!"

Ben sighed, and told the others, who of course were saddened, but something always had to go wrong. They had been followed, obviously still were, and the man the FBI had in custody, hadn't said a thing. The map and van were apparently untouched, so they would continue on, and let the Feds handle the hijack.

"Hello, mother..."

"Ben, BENJAMIN, this is the most exiting thing ever. I have been up all night researching this map, and it will change the world as we know it!"

"Mother, calm down..."

"I can't, Ben, let me tell you what I have found. Do you see the white area on the top of the map, it has been painted to show it is different from the rest of the yellow parchment. When you get it back home, have the skin tested to find out what animal it came from!" She took a deep breath, then went on, "The white area is the receding ice from around fourteen thousand years ago, the lands all look different because the water levels in the oceans could have been more than a hundred feet lower then, than they are now. Oh, there is so much to tell… The two major land masses in the oceans are labeled with symbols, passed down from the ancient Greeks, symbols for the lost continents of Atlantis and Lemuria, also known as Mu, to the Asians. Atlantis goes as far north as Bimini, where that underwater road was discovered. Central America is especially interesting, showing a larger Cuba, and how the Mayans would have had an easier time getting to Florida. The glyphs are their major cities, and the map shows the cities they controlled on the other continents. The languages show similarities to Olmec, Mayan and Egyptian, but there just aren't enough written characters. The Mediterranean is separated by a river, the land mass that became part of Louisiana is an island, the Keys of Florida are above water. The two Atlantean cities in that region correspond to lost cities only being uncovered today. One is underwater at the mouth of the Nile, and the other was recently unearthed, called Puma Punku, dating from 14,000 years ago."

"Relax, mother..."

"No, let me go on. Notice how the coastlines of the continents are larger than present day. All along these areas, submerged cities have been found, and in other parts of the world, like Japan and the island chains north of Australia. New Zealand may have been part of Lemuria, as well as Hawaii, and the other pacific islands, including Nan Madol, with its basalt walls in the middle of the pacific, which no one can explain. Some of those slabs weigh fifty tons."

Ben added, "Yes, and the sunken cities found off the coast of Alaska, thirty feet below sea level."

"The most amazing thing to me, is the land mass, with a city south of Atlantis, it has to be Antarctica, with land not covered by ice, they have a city located there."

"Mother, I also am looking with interest at the unusual glyph, apparently along the banks of the Colorado, where we found the cave."

"Ben I have a theory about that too, it has been written that Atlantis and Lemuria were at war, at some point. Your cave could be their peace meeting, where they divided the world between them." Emily paused for a moment, then said, "I need to have the map in my hands to date and authenticate it."

"Actually, that is why I called. I would like to ask Dad to bring it to you in South Dakota, while I need to return to the east coast."

She made a little noise, then said, "Patrick..." There was a long pause, then she said, "Well, of course, that would be fine."

"Thanks, mother, I will be in touch soon." Ben ended the call, and immediately called his father. "Dad, I need a favor."

"Does this involve another treasure hunt?"

Ben hesitated for a moment, not quite sure how to respond. "Yes, but we already found it. It is all being shipped to Washington D. C., but there's a huge map that I would like you to drive to mom, in South Dakota." He had to hope the FBI would regain the treasure truck, but did not want to tell his father.

"Oh, well that's okay, then, I'm not sure these old bones are ready for any more tunneling, or what have you." After a moment, he said, "So where are you?"

"We are near Denver, and we have already booked and bought a ticket for you, one way to Denver. You'll get the van, with a huge crated map inside, and drive it to mom, in South Dakota," Ben said. After nearly a minute of silence, he added, "Dad?"

"Yes, yes, I'll do it. How's Abigail?"

"I will tell you all about it when you get here." Giving him all the relevant flight information took a few minutes, then he wished him a safe trip. Ben was a little annoyed that they had to wait for Patrick to arrive, and that their flight did not leave until the next evening. They had had to pay extra for all of Riley's gear, but that was all right. They found a nearby restaurant and had a nice meal, the best they'd had for a while. All the while, they could not help thinking about the missing truck.

It was fully dark and the night air was 'delicious', as Abigail's mother would have described it. They had walked for less than a mile, hand in hand, before the phone jangled, to interrupt their quiet time. "It's Sadusky, I had better take it."

Sadusky, still showing annoyance in his voice, related that two trackers had been found beside a rail line, and they figured the entire truck had been loaded into a special boxcar. They knew from rail records that the train was heading east. A satellite was being sent to keep an eye on the train, but they were waiting for a signal from the third tracker, it had not been accounted for yet. Ben knew they were too far away to do anything, but he was still annoyed about it anyway.

They had just returned to their motel room, when a signal alerted Abigail that her search engine had just completed its incredibly large search, and the results were now available.

Abigail spent more than an hour reading through the copious amount of data her computer had churned out and collated. A great many of the articles, stories and writings from that time referred to the pre-war companies that had thrived producing armaments, uniforms, etc. She disregarded these, as well as the somewhat inflammatory reports of northerners taking over large land grants in the southern states after the war. There were twenty eight stories spotlighted by the search, but Abigail homed in on one in particular.

"Ben, listen to this. I have a more complete story than the one I mentioned before, an excerpt from The Crick Chronicle, a Virginia paper that burned down less than a year after this story was published." She handed him the story. "Some of the information, like the town's name, is different, but the story about the war is the same one."

'Eight men who lived in North Virginia followed the call to join the army when fighting broke out, five joined Robert E. Lee, and three joined the union army. Before the war their families were close, though none had any real wealth, and all lived in a small village with no name, outside of Berryville. It is believed they were all Masons, and in the same lodge, though this is unconfirmed. Two men from each faction, north and south, were brothers. This story was related by one brother who fought under Stonewall Jackson, of how in a skirmish neat Chattanooga, he looked down his barrel site taking aim at a union soldier. The man in his sights, aiming at him, was Donny, a good friend from his earliest memories. Both soldiers swung their rifles and found new targets. Both men survived the war, and told this tale to an innkeeper. Only six of the eight men lived to return to their homes, but what they found was burnt to the ground, and their families were dead or gone. Within two years after the end of the war, this story brings to life the incredible success of these six men, who have rebuilt homes north of Winchester, and built factories and businesses that are thriving. These men have built a new village, they call Abidos, and have found wives, and started new families. Story to be continued...'

"What is interesting is that the newspaper was burned down a few months after running this article, and the owner killed in the blaze. I can find no other reference or story about this."

"Very interesting, Abigail, I think we should pass this along to Sadusky. It may be nothing, but just the choice of the name Abidos strikes a chord with me."

The next two days were both hectic and boring, but Patrick arrived and left for South Dakota, about two hours before Abigail, Riley, and Ben boarded their flight to Washington D. C., after passing along their story to Sadusky. He did not want to talk about it, he was still frantically trying to find the boxcar, or the tracker signal with no success, even though he had tapped agency resources across the country to help him.

It wasn't until long after they had landed that Ben heard from Sadusky again. The day was damp and windy, and Riley was all worried about his equipment. He and Abigail were just weary from the travel. They spent one night at home, and awoke to the phone ringing at about 6AM.

"Ben, we stopped the train before in got to Baltimore, near Hancock, and discovered the empty boxcar. With a little prodding and a few threats, the engineer admitted to receiving a large bribe for an unplanned stop, outside the city of Cumberland, Maryland. We hadn't heard a ping from the hidden tracker since the first one by Fort Morgan in Colorado. Agents in St. Louis and Chicago failed to hear one as the train passed through. We think they are on the road again, but we don't have an idea where they are heading."

"We may be able to help you with that. Abigail found this story..."

After they spoke, Ben texted the article, and references to Sadusky, then got ready to move out. Riley was contacted, and they left together before eight o'clock, headed for Virginia. Luckily the traffic was not terrible and they made fairly good time. Ben called Sadusky just after they crossed into Virginia, near Leesburg, heading west.

On the way, Riley said in a sleepy voice, "I kept thinking about the original treasure that Wright found in the cave. The bad guys must have had someone working there..."

"Another conspiracy, Riley?" asked Abigail.

"Well, not exactly, but those crates that we looked in must have been logged in, but there was no paperwork on them, like they wanted the records to be lost. The other thing I wonder about was the missing partner who found the stuff. What if he wanted it all for himself, and made a deal..."

Ben nodded, "I think that's a valid point, but whoever it was is long dead," Ben added.

"Actually, I was wondering if they still have someone there, at the Smithsonian..."

"Tell you what, Riley, we'll tell Sadusky about your theory, and let him check it out, okay?"

Just then the phone rang, it was from Sadusky.

"Ben, we are south of Winchester, but we got a ping off the tracker, I am sending the GPS coordinates. We will meet you there. It is not officially incorporated as a town, but they call it the town of Abidos, there are a few homes and some factories there. Wait for us before you move in, you are closer, I think."

**Chapter 6**

Abigail had been tapping away on her laptop, then she said, "I haven't found a town called Abidos, but there is an area owned by the Abidos Corporation, a conglomerate of companies that are unrelated in what they manufacture, but are jointly owned. Included are a research facility, a clothing manufacturer, an implement company, and several general merchandise stores. They own about five square miles, and it is called an industrial park, not a city. There are homes included in the park, ostensibly for families that work there." She gave Ben the directions, and he followed them.

Apparently, they arrived first, there were no other vehicles on the road or parked outside the industrial park's limits, but there was a sign announcing, 'Welcome to Abidos'.

Ben drove slowly down the main street, there were people out and about, and cars moving around the businesses. "Sadusky told us to wait, Ben..."

"We're just tourists, and there is a museum up ahead I have always wanted to visit." he responded.

"What? Where..."

Ben parked and hopped out of the rental car, the others followed after exchanging questioning looks.

Inside, Ben put on a friendly face, and said to an employee, what a nice little town you have here. Where can we find a motel?"

"I am sorry, sir, this is an industrial park, not a town. No motels, and the gates are locked up after business hours."

"Oh, that's okay. Can we look around the museum?"

"Surely, and if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. My name is Maggie, Maggie Brown."

The museum was quite small, only the size of a three room apartment, but the displays were of great interest to Ben. He headed for the Egyptian display, and looked closely at the statues, and figurines. There were painted urns, showing figures of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, below a gilt rim. Under his breath to Abigail, he said, "Look familiar to you?"

Abigail nodded, and headed for a historical display, where a picture of six men, all dressed in shabby clothes, stood arm in arm. One clearly wore a faded blue uniform, while another wore a battered southern military had that had seen better days. Below the picture, there were names listed. Ben and Jimmy Brown, Nate and Michael Green, Lonnie Smith, and Ace Jones. Under her breath to Riley who had walked up beside her, she said, "Right...".

Even Riley had noticed the common names, and so therefore, changed from the original.

There was a civil war section, relatively small, with two rifles, a pistol, and some musket balls. There were three faded shirts, and a hat, possibly the same as shown in the picture. Below were some old food tins, and a couple of bottles, one cracked.

Abigail, stepping toward Maggie, asked, "Are these the founders of your little community? Can you tell me more about them?"

"Certainly," she said, rising from her chair, "These men were all soldiers in the war, but they were on opposite sides. When the war ended they pooled their resources, and started several businesses, which thrived after the war. They all became wealthy, took brides and started families right here."

"It seems odd that men from both sides of the war, would go into business together. Anything else you can tell me?"

Riley and Ben had come up behind Maggie, to listen.

"I don't know how or why they got together, but my Granny said she heard tell that they were only in the war the last year or so, but they had been friends before, and that's what counted. Anyway, the families have all been centered here since then. Some move away, many come back."

They pretended to look at the other exhibits, but left abruptly, thanking Maggie as they left.

"Those Egyptian artifacts have to be what's left from the original treasure, and I'd bet they sold everything else to help themselves get wealthy."

"Agreed, Riley," Ben said, "But the statute of limitations on that robbery is a hundred years old, yet I did find it interesting the choice of names. They likely chose Green and Brown to leave their pasts behind them."

"And Smith..." noted Riley.

On the walk back to their vehicle, Abigail said, "Let's look up those names, and compare them to Smithsonian records of the period, and see what we can find." After a short drive, there was a park area on the north edge of town, with a small creek, nice shade trees, a swing set, and a teeter-totter. They parked, opened the windows and sliding door, to let the breeze blow through. Riley and Abigail were again tapping away on their laptops, while Ben strolled off, toward the fence line. The park had had an extended fence run out to include it in their little private town, but the original fence still stood between the park and the clothing manufacturing factory. There were no trees beyond the fence, and Ben could clearly see the loading area, with the unmarked trucks loading up for the day's deliveries. The dock boss had a thick head of wavy hair, and could have been older than seventy, while the youngsters loading the truck were late teens, or twenties. The truck driver looked to be a good deal older, it was hard to tell. Just after the semi pulled away from the dock, a black, unmarked truck drove in, swung around, and backed up to the dock, on a slightly raised ramp, for smaller vehicles.

Ben stepped back from the fence and pulled out his phone, after dialing , he said, "Sadusky, you don't have to wait for a ping, the truck is a couple hundred feet south of my phone."

"Ben, I told you to wait!"

"Fine, just get here fast."

"We should be there in twenty minutes, don't move in until we get there." Sadusky hung up before Ben could answer. He stood there and waited, partially concealed in the trees, until three cars raced in. Men jumped out, flashing guns and badges, but when all was said and done, the truck was empty, and the only charge made was possession of a stolen truck. Ben could hear the driver saying he was hired to drive the truck here, and had no idea what had been inside it before. The truck and driver were taken away.

Ben returned to the others, and told them what he had seen.

"I don't remember seeing any side roads, or turn offs anywhere between here and the highway, do you?"

"No, how about you Riley?"

Riley played with his hat, then commented, "Well, there was that one hill that had a small tunnel through it, but that couldn't be..."

Ben slapped his palms together, interrupting Riley, "That could be it! The hill was so small, they would have just sheered it away when they built the road, unless there was something else there."

Abigail was not too sure about Ben's insight, but she climbed into the car anyway. 'Ben, I found one more interesting note from my search. There was an employee at the Smithsonian named Green around the time of the original treasure find, but that may not have any bearing."

Watching for any side roads, and seeing none, they arrived at the tunnel in under five minutes, and got out after leaving the car outside the tunnel. Ben had his flashlight on before they entered the unlit tunnel, even though it was short enough to be fairly well lit. He stopped near the center, and placed his hands on the bricks, while Riley held the light.

"Ben, there is an opening up above, and it looks like it might hold a camera." Abigail pointed upward and behind them.

They left without saying anything more, and climbed back into the car. "Riley, can you find out if there is any kind of broadcast signal coming from here with all your fanciful gadgets?"

Without answering, Riley dug through two bags of gear in the back seat, and pulled out several instruments, two of which he plugged into his lap top. After a couple of minutes, Riley said, "Good thought Ben, there is a broadcast signal coming from the camera, at a low frequency, and just enough power to reach the town. There is another something there seeking a radio frequency just beyond normal radio channels."

"So. Like a garage door opener?" Abigail commented.

"Could be, I could cobble one together in about an hour, and we could try it, but I would need a special battery pack."

Back in town, Riley returned to the car with a small bag, saying "I've got the stuff I needed, found it at the gas station."

A little after an hour, and a light lunch, Riley announced he was ready. It was just then that Sadusky called. "Where are you, Ben?"

"Just having lunch at the AbiDiner, what's up?"

"The truck driver has clammed up, and won't say anything until he gets a lawyer. The other guy you caught in Utah with a rat trap hasn't said a word either. Any ideas where we go from here?"

"Why, Agent Sadusky, you told me to stay out of it!"

"Yes, and I knew that would make you try even harder."

Ben smiled and said, "Let's meet quietly at that tunnel we passed though getting here. I think something is going on there. Meet us there about six o'clock, the road should be pretty quiet by that time. While Abigail and Riley took a nap in the car, Ben went out to collect some supplies from the countryside. After collecting a bunch of grasses, twigs, and a strip of dark cloth, he set about building a large bird nest, using string from a long lost kite that he had found. The cloth was wrapped into the nest, with a long strip hanging out. Ben put the nest and some larger sticks into the trunk of the car, then called his mother.

"Ben, I haven't slept since your map arrived. Patrick and I have gone over it, time and again. I believe the parchment to be camel skin, but the confirmation has not come back from the laboratory yet. We have also sent off samples of the different paints for radiocarbon dating."

"Did you notice that there is no Baja California on the map, and it looks like the Colorado empties there into the Pacific? Also it looked like Madagascar was still part of Africa."

"Yes, and so much more. I found out that New Orleans and the surrounding area has different soil than the rest of the country, it is much more similar to that of Brazil. That island must have been pushed into the coast by tectonic means. We are cataloging the cities, and measuring distances. One thing you were not aware of, was on the back of the map. When we turned it over, and lit it with ultraviolet, there was a map of the solar system on the back, drawn to galactic scale. The sun was a large ball on the right side, with all the planets drawn to scale across the map. And when I say all, I mean all, they did not include Pluto on the map, but in the furthest corner, there is a yet to be discovered planet shown. Pluto has an orbit of 246 years, this planet could be three or four times that. One more thing, they show a planet in the area we call the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. How could they have known about this?"

"Wonderful, mother, I want to know all about it, but we have to leave now. Call you later."

"Goodbye, son."

Just before six, the three of them climbed into the car, and headed for the tunnel. Abigail texted Sadusky, but received no reply. When they arrived at the quiet tunnel area, Ben pulled out his fake bird nest, and carried it into the tunnel, hugging the wall. Standing on a wood box Riley had carried in, Ben stuffed the bird nest into the camera niche, and wedged it in with two sticks. Then he draped the piece of cloth over the lens. Riley hustled back to the car and brought back his cobbled 'garage door opener', which was about the size of a toaster. He pressed a button, and a light came on, it made a quiet humming sound. "This could take a minute...'

His words were cut off when two large, curved sections of the brick wall, rolled back into the hill, and then moved to each side, revealing a large dark opening. They were still pulling out their flashlights, when a car rolled up, and Sadusky hopped out with three more agents. They had pistols in one hand, and large flashlights in the other.

"How did you know to bring flashlights?"

"Tunnels are dark places, Ben. Besides, I did a little research, this was a Civil war ammo dump the Union thought had been decommissioned, and filled up. According to a Smithsonian representative, more about that later, but it appears that two of those names you gave me were in their employ back then."

The tunnel had a dirt floor which showed recent tire tracks, likely coming in and going out. There were no lights or anything along the carved rock walls, as they moved in further. They came to a modern metal garage door, which was not locked. It slid open with little noise, but the room was darkened; the flashlights showed a turn around circle for vehicles, and also a panel on the wall for lights. Guns at ready, Sadusky flipped the four switches on at once. The area had an eight foot ceiling, in a rock chamber about fifty feet square. There were ten support posts with beams across the ceiling, as a safety measure. There was a pile of artifacts the agents recognized, since they had packed them up, their labels were clearly visible. There were also artifacts on display in a very nice, museum quality glass enclosure, with internal lighting. What was left of William Wright's treasure was nicely displayed. A gold sarcophagus, and three statues of various size, all dressed differently. One statue had light skin, one tan, and the other dark brown. There were a few necklaces and other ornamentation hung on the wall, bone sculptures, and a bowl of shrunken or dried fruits. Ben commented, "I can see an apple and an orange in the bowl, there also seem to be figs and dates, but some of them are like nothing I have seen before."

Sadusky went back toward the road, until he got cell reception, then made a call for back up. Abigail and another agent found another entrance behind a curtain, that they thought might lead back into town, but they would wait for Sadusky before exploring further. Along the wall were displayed weapons, shields, spears, atlatls, and different bows, even a harpoon. The other wall opposite had various styles of clothing and hats, most of which Abigail had never seen before. There were urns, and pottery, dishes and cooking utensils, on simple tables, none had any labels or descriptions.

Riley noticed some footprints under one of the display tables, and said, "They must bring the children down here, they have left footprints under the table."

It seemed a very long time before three more cars showed up. One was sent into town, while the others entered the man made cave. Sadusky led the team through the passage, and arriving at a simple wood door, pushed it open and burst into a dark basement room, empty and quiet. They soon discovered that they were in the basement of the small museum, and the place had been locked up for the night. It was nearly nine o'clock when the door was opened to give the third car of agents entry. The lights had been left off, so as not to attract attention. It was nearly midnight before the entire town had been rounded up in the church, of the fifty eight people expected, there were still six men missing. No one knew where they were.

The entire population was taken by bus to the closest facility, children were bedded down first, then as the adults were processed through, they were also incarcerated for the rest of the short night, agents were left in Abidos, even though all of the museum pieces had been packed up and sent to a secure location.

Riley, Ben, and Abigail had spent the next, short day, waiting. The following day, Ben called Sadusky early on, to find out what had happened. "I thought you and the Mrs. had gone home. Why are you still here?"

"But..."

"I can tell you a couple things, but everything else has to be processed, you understand. We confirmed that Ben Brown and Lonnie Smith were employees of the Smithsonian, way back then. They were likely instrumental in diverting the first treasure, and some of the loot was stolen to set up those men with bankrolls. The statute of limitations has long run out on that crime, but they were probably still trying to cover their tracks by pulling the second heist, or they were running out of cash. Either way, we will run them down eventually. They will be caught. Now go home, Ben."

"All right, but Abigail and I have a honeymoon to finish, I think we will head to South Dakota, to finish it up. I will definitely send Riley home. Oh, by the way, can you call the president and tell him to toss page forty seven..."

About a week later, the phone jangled; Ben answered on the third ring. Sadusky's voice came through, "We have straightened everything out, with a couple exceptions. There were two clay tablets, on the bottom of the two largest statues. I haven't been able to find anyone who wants to take a crack at deciphering them."

Ben rubbed his eyes, and said, "I'll have to ask my mother..."

"Which one?"


	3. Chapter 7 - 9

**Chapter 7**

After their abridged honeymoon in the Southwest, Ben and Abigail decided to finish their honeymoon somewhere else. Abigail had suggested that they could go to the Caribbean, while Ben had suggested Florida. Ben somehow won.

Ben and Abigail boarded their airplane, at gate 7A of the Miami airport. They were talking about the incredible quiet they had experienced over the last seven days. They had made no calls, and their phones had not rung once.

Abigail tucked her arm under his once she had herself buckled in, she rested her sun tanned cheek on his shoulder, and said, "Why did you tell Sadusky we were going to South Dakota, again?"

"Just a little game I like to play with him. He always seems to know right where we are, even when I haven't told anyone." Ben smiled and gripped her hand lightly, raised it to his lips, and kissed it. He tried not to think about the most recent incredible find, but his brain kept slipping back to it. There was that little voice in the back of his head, that told him the wild ride was not over yet. He turned his phone off, and closed his eyes.

Both Ben and Abigail awoke as the plane landed outside of Washington D, C.

Within moments of entering the terminal, Abigail's phone rang. Sadusky's voice came through loudly enough for Ben to hear, "Tell Ben to turn his phone on, we need to talk." After a few seconds he added, "How were the Florida beaches?"

Ben just smiled. They found a quiet table in the corner of an empty restaurant, Abigail placed her phone on the table so they could both talk.

"Just to bring you up to date, we think we have recovered all but a few items from the find. We have yet to track down two of the group who were following you out west, but we have a couple leads there. The second SUV was found trashed, near where the vehicles were stolen, and we traced the spot where the one with the treasure was put in a boxcar. Riley even tapped into a satellite, and found two images of the truck being loaded. The town's people have been mostly returned, except those who were in on the heist. What we don't have is any idea of how to read these tablets. They were part of the base of the two largest statues, but our best people have no clue what they mean."

Abigail enlarges the pictures Sadusky had texted her, and the couple studied them for nearly ten minutes, before calling Sadusky back. "We recognize many of the symbols, but right now, we have no idea what this means. My mother would be a better source of information about this stuff," Ben said

"That is why you two can pick up your tickets at American, for South Dakota. I sent Riley there already, early this morning."

"But..."

"Thanks, Ben and Abigail." Sadusky hung up.

They looked at each other, giving half smiles. "At least it is good to feel needed. I have to call work." While Abigail made the call, Ben just looked at her. As he did, a smile grew slowly on his face, this was their life together, and it had been fantastic so far...

They landed in South Dakota, and found Riley waiting for them at the baggage area. He held up a key for the vehicle Sadusky had rented for them. While they waited for the bags to be spewed out, Ben asked "So, Riley, have you looked up that young lady you met, when we were here before?'

Riley got a funny look on his face, and shrugged his shoulders.

They loaded up, and Riley jumped into the driver's seat. Abigail followed Ben into the back seat. They looked back, and saw the rear of their car was packed with all kinds of electronic gear. Riley pulled up to the warehouse where all of the work was being done for Cibola, and parked right next to the vehicle Patrick had driven there from the Green River. As Riley got out he asked, "How was Florida?"

"How did you know?"

"Sadusky," said Riley.

Inside, after handshakes, and hugs, Emily said, "It is so nice to have you and Abigail with us again. Tell me all about it later. Riley brought these from the new treasure the three of you found, they were placed under the bases of two large statues, and literally fell off when they were unpacked."

The tablets looked to be made of pottery clay, having a reddish tinge, but they were uncoated. The surface, while hard, could be cut with a sharp knife.

Laying side by side, the tablets were on a high table, which was covered with a heavy plastic sheet. Bright lights were hung above the tablets, and there were stools to sit on. The tablets were about eighteen inches square, and about an inch thick.

"These characters are unlike anything I have ever seen before. They bear a slight resemblance to Sumerian, but when applied to these symbols, it comes out gibberish." Emily pointed to the characters on one tablet that appeared to be more a form of writing than on the other tablet, which was divided by a deeply etched straight, vertical line. Ben lifted one tablet, and found the edges and back to be smooth. The left third of the tablet had a long vertical arrow, ending in a many pointed star, near the top of the tablet. He made a mental note that the top could be the bottom, without any frame of reference. There was another shorter line, angling left from the origin, with an inverted "V" at it's tip. Along the edge of the shorter line, was a circle etched into the clay.

Ben's gaze moved to the larger portion of the tablet, where there were two columns, the first column appeared to be letters, in that they were like those on the other tablet, while the second column were symbolic pictures, and the first three had lines inscribed below them of increasing length. The figures were, listed from the top down, appeared to be a finger, then a hand, then two lines with a bump on the end. The next symbol looked like a standing bullet, with a line inscribed from the base to the center. Then came a stretched sideways "H", followed by what looked like a sun, a circle with lines coming out around it, and then a solid circle. The lines beneath the first three symbols intrigued Ben, and he grabbed for a ruler. He noticed everyone else peering over his shoulders. He smiled, then laid the ruler on each of the lines, then he measured his finger, hand to the wrist, and his arm. He turned with a big smile on his face, and said, "This is a distance coding table. The first symbol in a finger, and the line inscribed below it is about two and a quarter inches, the length of my finger. The next, a hand, is seven and a quarter inch, while the third is the length of my arm to the elbow."

Riley chimed in, "Just like the metric system, they measured the king to get the official length of the distances! Then they made metal bars that everyone used!"

Ben nodded and smiled, "The next one, the wide "H", could be the equivalent of our mile, whatever length that might be. Now let's consider the last two..."

Both Abigail and Patrick began to talk, at the same time. Abigail let Patrick speak first, "The sun is clear, the length of a day. So the distance is how far you can walk in a day."

Emily piped in, "A hard march would be about thirty miles, but a standard walk something less. Based on the length of the day, it would likely be the summer solstice, a day of great importance."

"Yes, the solstice was the most important day. This, and the appearance of the Dog Star on the horizon, told the ancient Egyptians that the Nile flood was about to begin. Now the last circle, maybe the moon?"

Riley rushed out of the room, and came back a few minutes later, lugging a bunch of his equipment. After several minutes, he booted up his computer, and began to type furiously. The others were tossing out ideas for the other diagram, while Emily went back to stare at the other tablet.

It was another few minutes until Riley called to them. They gathered around his computer screen, which showed the night sky. "I assumed that the only night sky feature, solstice or otherwise, was the North star, pictured on the tablet. The other line, when plotted on the day of it's rising, points directly to the spot in the sky where Sirius rises a few days after the solstice. The angles match perfectly. Now the moon, pictured by the line, is the distance to follow the line, and that would be the time a person could walk in one moon cycle, twenty seven and a half days! Now all we need is the stating point, to find out where we have to go!"

Emily said, as she looked up from the other tablet, "We have to look at the big map, the one Patrick brought."

Set up, about ten feet to the left, was a room made out of thick plastic walls, with an entry area; the inside was climate and humidity controlled, to simulate the area where it had been found. The lights were much lower intensity inside, to prevent damage to the map. "We discovered it is made from camel skin," Emily commented as they entered.

The beautiful representation of the ancient planet's surface at the end of the ice age, was hung vertically, and illuminated from all sides. Riley set a projector on a tall stool, connected by a cable to his computer, and the lines overlayed the map. When aligned with the celestial positions, with the bottom of the "V" set on the major northern city on the map, it pointed to a spot in the Appalachian mountains. "I estimated the time it would take to walk one moon cycle, as twenty seven and a half times Emily's thirty miles. The arrow stops at around eight hundred miles."

"What starting point did you use?" asked Patrick.

"Since Atlantis isn't there anymore, I chose the high points of Bimini and the Bahamas as the likeliest spot."

Ben jumped in and said, "The inverted "V" is a mountain!"

Riley brought up another map, showing the Appalachians, with the highest peaks marked. "There are several peaks of similar height in that area, Mt. Guyot, Clingman's Dome, and Mt. Craig, but the highest, at six thousand, six hundred, eighty-four feet, is Mt. Mitchell, in North Carolina."

"Good work, Mr. Poole, I think you've hit the nail on the head."

"Now all we have to do, is figure out why," said Emily.

Patrick was still looking at the measurement list. "I would bet this fourth symbol stands for a man's height, this symbol could be a symbolic man. It could mean a distance of five to six feet."

"I think you are right, dad."

Emily looked over, and added, "The list on the left are likely the phonetic names of each measurement, note how the first symbol is incorporated in each of the next three. Just to give us a name to use, 'Pe' could be the finger, 'Pez' would be the hand, 'Pezo' the arm, and 'Pezot' the height. The next two are also similar, they could be 'Arn', and 'Arno'. The moon has it's own symbol, just for fun we'll call it 'Moon'." There was an air of indifference in her words, perhaps a mild rebuke for Patrick, followed by a little huff.

Riley was staring at the other tablet, "I can't see anything on this tablet that even looks like writing, but down at the bottom are three symbols from the other tablet. There is one finger, two hands, and one arm."

Emily gently pushed him aside, and pointed to the first row of glyphs. "These are word pictures, and some are similar to Egyptian or Olmec symbols. I haven't had time to thoroughly look at them, but two of the symbols, here and here..." She pointed at them, "Are the symbols from the large map, standing for the countries of Atlantis and Lemuria. I will need time, perhaps a long time, to pull any meaning from the symbols, but my best guess is this refers to their war ending, and possibly why. A little further down, is the same symbol on the map for the cave you found." She pointed out the third symbol. "I would like to show you three what I..."

"We." Patrick interrupted.

With a crooked smile, Emily continued, "What 'we' found on the map."

They walked over and entered the second enclosure, wherein the map hung from the rafters, and was illuminated on both sides, and there were other light sources set up besides the white light. Infrared, ultraviolet, and the rest of the visible light spectrum colors could be the source of illumination. The map struck Ben with the same esoteric beauty he remembered from the cave, but here the colors stood out and intensified the sight.

Emily walked them around to the back, which appeared blank under white light, and flipped a switch. Suddenly there were a line of different sized orbs, with the largest by far on the left end. "This, of course, is the sun, and these are the planets in our solar system that are visible to the naked eye." The first five planets were small, compared to the last two, the last one had a straight line drawn through it. "These last represent Saturn and Jupiter, and the smaller ones are the inner planets."

"There is an extra one!" Riley chimed in.

Three started to answer, but Patrick said "It is where the asteroid belt is, where another planet used to be before it exploded, or was torn apart by Jupiter."

Riley stepped out and came back in with his computer. Emily flashed through the other colored lights until a final symbol flashed to brilliance above the line of planets, under the infrared light. It was a skull, a bright red skull.

"A symbol of death." Abigail whispered.

Each was lost in separate thoughts, as they walked around to the other side of the map. Then after a few minutes, Riley said, "I just looked some stuff up on my computer. Saturn is the farthest out of these planets, and goes around the sun about every thirty years, while Jupiter goes around in twelve. When the planets all line up like these are, it is called a conjunction. This occurs about every twenty years, the next will be in December, and the last was in May of 2000. But, due to precession, it will occur in different parts of the sky, so it would take about two thousand four hundred years to come back to the same spot in the sky. This is called a great conjunction."

Ben jumped in, "Then they believed they had about twenty four hundred years under they died, and that would coincide with the end of the ice age. Waters would rise, and their world would be gone..."

"But what was the planet that blew up called?"

"_Riley_!" Ben and Abigail said together. Riley found his computer screen of great interest again.

It had been a long day, especially for the travelers, so they headed back into town. It was fully dark before they reached the motel. Everyone but Emily needed sleep, she needed answers. Ben drove, with Abigail in the middle.

Abigail looked over at Riley, who was tapping away on his laptop. "So whatever came of all those images you took at Chaco Canyon?"

A huge smile came to Riley's face, then he said, "Ben doesn't often want to hear about my theories and ideas. As you know Chaco was a meeting place for many of the ancient tribes. I have read up on the oral traditions of the Zuni and the Pueblo Indians, who call themselves 'space men' or 'star people', they saw a sign near Chaco that threw them for a loop. There were three slabs of stone set on a mountainside, and the sun would make a dagger shape over a spiral. This indicated everything was okay in the world, when the dagger pointed to the right spot. Something happened, no one knows what, to cause the dagger to shift by about three inches, indicating major disruptions in the world. They think this is why Chaco was abandoned. Chaco canyon was the center of their world, Hopi ruins were cities built in the shape of Orion stars, and the belt of Orion pointed to Chaco, their most sacred place. These alignments are similar to those of the Giza plateau and street of the dead in Mexico City, where the belt of Orion points to special places of worship, like Heliopolis. With my measurements of the architectural precision on the main part of the city, I plotted the star patterns that could be observed from Chaco, out of that long curved row of small square windows in the central circle. They are now out of alignment with the major stars that could be seen on the solstice. Just another sign that the world as they knew it was coming to and end. With water levels rising, and the changes in the rainfall, as well as the course of rivers changing, they were right. Their world changed, and they left that area, just like the people of Atlantis lost their world. The Rocky mountains kept growing higher as the tectonic plates moved, and the entire ecosystem changed, got dryer."

He looked at Abigail, and saw her eyes had drifted shut at some point. Riley made a little noise, and went back to his computer. In a few moments, she awoke upon arriving at the motel. They separated until morning.

Riley walked into the metal building. His hair was askew, and he was drinking his second cup of coffee. Emily was grumpily talking to herself, while Patrick sat at the end of one long table, unwrapping some of the carefully wrapped bundles recovered from the cave. None of the urns or statuary had been transported there, but the bundles needed to be sorted and categorized. Patrick was looking at a pile of four inch square tiles. They appeared to be blank on both sides, but there were quite a number of them. Patrick had looked at the twenty or so spread out on the table, and was opening the last package of them.

"What are you..." Riley began, and then stubbed his toe against the table leg. His coffee cup hit the edge, and sloshed over a bunch of tiles. He made a little squeaking sound, then looked frantically for some paper towels, or something to wipe up the spilled coffee.

Looking at the tiles, Patrick called out, "Emily, look at what Riley found!"

Emily started to say something harsh, then saw the tiles. When the dark liquid had hit the tiles, hair thin lines appeared, where the dark liquid had landed. On half of the tile was a glyph, and on the other side was a fine drawing of what the symbol stood for. She looked at the closest, and saw the picture of what appeared to be several wheat stalks.

"These will open my eyes to their language!" Her voiced was high pitched to show her excitement. "I have worked most of the night to try and ferret out just a few symbols, and you have found the way to read the tablets!"

Patrick moved to help her, but sat back down after one sharp glance. "Riley, could you bring us a whole pot of coffee, and a box of swabs?"

Happy to escape from his faux-pas, he hurried away.

By the time Abigail walked in, followed by Ben, Emily had a good portion of the text laid out. The English equivalents were scattered about several large pieces of paper, and Emily would not let anyone near.

Less than an hour later, Emily called them over. "I think I can give you broad idea of what this says. Bear in mind, that I still have had to make a few guesses." The others stood beside and behind her, looking at the papers on the table. "The first line sets the tale. 'Atlantis will perish before the Grand Conjunction. We have, or will, make a safe place to store our, I think this is heritage, or something like it. Our grains, our fruits, our history (I think), will be stored there, so that all we have done and known will be known to you, our ancestors'. I have had to make quite a few guesses, but I think the intent is obvious here."

"Certainly, after their home is inundated, it would be too late to set up their own version of a time capsule," Abigail commented.

"Amazingly, they were right, Atlantis is nearly completely gone as shown on the map. Just a few islands, the highest points, like Bimini and the Bahamas, are all that is still above water. The northern end of Atlantis was probably the Sargasso sea area, it is still shallow water there." Ben rubbed his chin and looked away from the map. "I wonder if Antarctica sunk, or just floated south due to tectonic action."

All of them just stood or sat there, thinking about how so much had happened to change the world in this way, and where it would lead them. Abigail spoke to no one in particular, "The cave was to be a testament to the end of their conflict, then they set about to save their things of great import, religion, history, discoveries, technology, just in case some survived the cataclysm. It boggles the mind."

**Chapter 8**

The telephone brought them all out of their individual thoughts, it was Sadusky.

"Hello Ben,"

"Sadusky, how's it going on your end? We have some exciting news." Ben motioned the others to gather around. "I'm going to put you on speaker."

"The men we arrested for the theft of the vehicle, and all the items stored within the truck, all tell the same story. The guy in charge, one Samuel Smith, was not arrested. Everything they did was on his orders. Then they clammed up, wouldn't say anything else, they were 'just doing their job'. There was one man, Nathan Brown who I stuck in a room for a couple hours. I opened with a familiar line, 'Nathan, somebody's got to go to prison', and he cracked."

Smiling at the memory, Ben said "And..."

"He had your talent for bargaining, Ben. I just looked hard at him, and he spilled everything. It seems there was a lost partner for William Wright, named Joseph Statz, and he was the mastermind for everything that followed. Through his position as an employee of the Smithsonian, it was he who had the treasure confiscated after they had brought it back to civilization. Wright was left holding the bag, while Statz took the loot. According to Brown's story, he sold enough of the stuff to buy up the land where the bunker and Abidos are located for a very low cost, and never saw Wright again. Statz had his name legally changed to Lonnie Smith, and kept his position with the Smithsonian, while the rest of the men built up the town and businesses. Over the years, they always had one or two of their little group working at the museum, to maintain their cover. The crates were there, but expunged from the files. When word came through there was another expedition, the family took matters into their own hands."

"What about the ringleader?" Ben asked.

"He, and perhaps a few others, are still on the loose. Smith should be considered armed and dangerous, Brown was afraid to talk about him at all. There is a chance he might still be on your trail, and by inference, a little crazy."

Ben launched into a very lengthy story about everything they had discovered, until Sadusky interrupted him. "Ben, too much information. I have to process these people, and decide what to do with them."

"All right, but here's what we are going to have to do." Ben looked at the others, who all nodded. "We believe, that is Emily, that we have cracked the cipher. There is, we think, another cache hidden in the Appalachian mountains, possibly on mount Mitchell, and after all these items are cataloged, we will be going after it."

"Stay in touch, Ben."

"I will call in the cavalry, if we need it."

"My assistance is still available, if needed." He hung up without waiting for a reply.

They were all in the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, except Emily who had chosen to stay with the artifacts. Patrick had insisted on coming, perhaps to get away from the artifacts, or Emily, for a while. Abigail had arranged for transport with the rental agency, and they were looking up Burnsville on the local map. It was suppertime, by the time their flight had landed, so they decided to stay in Charlotte for the night. Ben had a special liking for the city's name, anyway. Everything in his life had changed when he discovered 'the secret that lies with Charlotte'.

Rising early, they grabbed donuts and coffee for the road, and headed for the mountains. The drive was easy and the road was free of traffic. They entered the park area, and drove to the large parking lot. Riley looked up at the peak, and commented, "The Green River bank was steeper than this, it's just a big green hill."

Abigail replied, "This is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, but compared to the Rockies, it is just a big, domed hill, covered with trees. Let's go."

Patrick had been a little apprehensive about climbing a mountain, but this one didn't seem so bad. The trails could be a little slippery on a wet day, but it had been dry for a week. The steepest climbs were scaled easily by wooden steps. Signs reminded climbers to bring water with them, and also said food could be purchased at the top. Other signs indicated camping sites were available up above for twenty six dollars a night.

They saw few other climbers, and there were only four cars in the lot. The trails were a bit narrow in places, but they managed them, going up single file. Patrick needed a few extra stops on the way up, but the incline was not terribly difficult. Ben noticed it was getting a little cooler as they climbed, but it was welcome with the exertion.

The summit was achieved in good time, and drinks and snacks were purchased at the top. There had been a single trail with no deviations on the way up, so Ben decided to scout around. He saw a little used trail that headed through the largest stand of trees on top of the mountains, and followed it a ways through the trees. It curved down a ways, and then he saw the warning signs, and a chained off area with a path curving out of sight beyond it. The sign proclaimed 'Danger, Falling rock', with the appropriate warnings and threats of prosecution. Ben saw only 'here's the way to the cache'.

Returning to the group, he saw a burly park ranger talking to the group, he was pointing out the places you could see from the peak, and how far distant you could see. The sight was grand, but Ben had only one thought in mind. After they had rested up, and used the facilities, Ben led the group, as if to return to the base, but once out of sight, he cut across country, using the trees above as a marker. The ground was slippery in places, and without a path footing was sketchy, but they eventually came to the spot with warning signs. Ben stepped around the chains, and led the group around the curve of the hill. About fifty feet further, there was a flattened area, that looked like the hillside had been cut away, leaving a vertical rock wall thirty or more feet high. Ben smiled, seeing no sign of fallen rock, and had a feeling they were in the right place.

Patrick commented, "It's funny, those warning signs looked brand new, and the chains were still shiny. I think someone just put them up."

Riley stumbled twice along the path, he was looking up for falling rocks, not down at his feet.

Abigail's eyes held an excited look.

Just before Ben reached the open rock face, a gunshot was heard just after a bullet cracked into the rock face about three feet in front of Ben. Instinctively, they all dropped to the ground, there was no real cover except for a few trees sticking up from below the rock ledge. Two more shots rang out, as the stone chips from the impact spattered over them.

"Those are real bullets, Riley, keep your head down!"

"Not like on the boat!" Abigail added, hugging the ground.

Patrick, after a minute or two, said, "If the shooter wanted to kill us, we would already be dead. We're totally exposed here."

Ben popped up and sprinted back the way they had come. After hearing no gun shots, Abigail and Patrick also rose, moving quickly to retreat. Lastly, Riley scuttled along the narrow path on all fours, returning to the fence. Seeing no one, they returned to the mountain top, through the trees, and headed down the main path several hundred yards. They stopped, and stood there, breathing hard, for several minutes. All were looking around for any sign of movement. No one was seen. After a few minutes, Ben pulled out his phone, and was pleasantly surprised to have two bars.

"Houston, we have a problem!"

"What can I do to help, Ben?"

After talking it over for a few minutes, they returned to their rented SUV, and drove back to the nearby town. After renting a couple rooms, they gathered to get a meal, and settled in until morning.

"Ben, what were you talking to the desk clerk about?"

"I asked him if he knew the park ranger. He said everyone in town knew Sam Smith, and everyone liked him. He was friendly, talkative, and always had stories and jokes to tell."

"That's the name Sadusky gave us..."

"I know. I texted the name to Sadusky, but I haven't gotten a response." He held her closely, and said, "We'll just have to listen for him in the morning."

The sound of helicopter blades, flying low over the city, roused him. It was after eight, but Ben did not feel rested, he had slept fitfully through the night. They rose, and dressed, then found Riley and Patrick having a light breakfast. Just after getting their food, Ben received a text from Sadusky, saying the mountain was again safe. Smith had been arrested in his home, and had his guns confiscated. He had surrendered without a fight when the four FBI men with Sadusky, had knocked on his door. The man had not spoken a word when arrested. The rifle had been recently fired, and Sadusky thought it likely it was the weapon that had scared them away.

In two trips the helicopter brought the agents and the others up to the summit, Patrick was especially appreciative that he did not have to do the climb again, he was still sore from the previous day. There was an empty picnic area on the top, where the chopper could land easily. Two agents had gone ahead to secure the area, and two stayed behind. Ben led Sadusky to the path, and the five went down toward the rock cut. Only Riley was furtive, on the way, but all arrived without incident.

They got their first look at the rock cut, and it was pretty clear that the wall had been cut away vertically, leaving a flat ledge about four feet wide, where they could stand. Ben was immediately drawn to an area on the left, where the rock had a polished look. As he stood in the artificially created corner, there was an inscribed square with three cross cuts that left buttons, about an inch square. As he touched one, it pushed in slightly, then fell back out after he released the pressure. Each small square had an etched figure or symbol on it. All of the symbols were familiar, but after pressing multiple buttons alone and in combination with others, nothing happened.

Patrick looked over his shoulder, observing, and said, "Remember, these people wanted this cache to be found, it was their legacy to our world. The code would be simple, but based in their language."

Abigail was standing next to him, and she said, "Ben, look down lower, there is another spot that looks carved out. It is partially hidden by the vines."

The spot had a tiny ridge below, and a dirt covered button just above it, when he brushed it clean with his hand, and removed the vines, a symbol appeared there too. "It is the symbol of the arm and hand, a measure of length."

"Lean down," Riley piped in, "they were shorter!"

Bending his knees, Ben placed his elbow just above the notch, and pressed in. It moved slightly. His hand was at the above square. He saw the bottom two center buttons had hand symbols, and pressed these in with the heel of his hand. The top left corner held a finger symbol, and he pressed it down while holding the others in. A loud crack made him jump back, but a doorway edge had been revealed, just to the right, five feet tall, and two and a half feet wide. Riley leaned in and helped him push the stone back. Flashlights were turned on, and they entered.

The inside of the enclosure was not large, the walls had been carved away, and the contents had been neatly stacked on the floor, Ben and Riley turned the door and pushed it out onto the rock ledge, while Patrick and Sadusky guided it to the outer lip of the ledge. There was barely room for all of them to enter together, but each managed to grab some items, and carry them out. The wooden boxes were still sturdy after all the years of storage, the cave had been sealed well enough to keep any water out. All helped carry the boxes back to the helicopter, and after a little over an hour, most were moved. While the FBI agents began to stack the boxes in the helicopter, Ben just had to open one. His pocket knife pried the corner open, and the contents were revealed. Inside was a block of wax, beeswax he thought, and sealed inside it were seeds, these looked very much like wheat. The seeds had likely been stirred into the soft wax, then poured into the box to harden. An ingenious storage method, he thought. Resealing the box, Ben loaded it in the chopper.

Sadusky was right behind Ben when he stood up. "Everything okay?"

Ben nodded, noticing the concern on Sadusky's face. The agent who had collared Smith came running up to both of them. After catching his breath, he blurted out, "The ranger is gone. I had attached his handcuffs to the security bar in the back of the van. I had to leave for a minute, to use the facilities, I was sure he was secured."

"How about now?"

"We will get him back, sir!" Just then, a distant sound of a trail bike came through the trees, then faded out.

When they had returned to the van, Sadusky noticed that one of the cache's crates was also missing from the rear of the van. "Seems like our secure prisoner also took a souvenir."

"There is only one place he would feel safe." Ben said in a low voice.

Sadusky nodded, "Abidos."

It was twenty four hours later, when everything had been tidied up. The stone door had been replaced until further inspection could clear the area. All of the contents were on route back to the Washington D. C. area. Ben, Abigail, Riley and Patrick decided to travel separately, Sadusky had offered them a ride in the cargo plane, but they opted for their own way back.

Heading northeast, Ben was driving, and shortly after leaving he said, "Sadusky told me that a woman named Eleanor Green had filed charges in court, stating that I had tampered or stolen Smithsonian artifacts. Recognize the name, Green? One of our local Abidos residents. She thought I was you, Riley. Anyway, Sadusky said it will never go to trial, based on his testimony." Ben paused to take the highway entry ramp, then continued, "What about that girl in South Dakota, Riley?"

In the midst of making an entry, Riley said, "Oh, I'm dating an FBI agent named..." His head came up, "Oops, never mind."

Patrick gently punched him on the shoulder and smiled. Abigail turned around and gave him the 'look', but he wouldn't look up. "Actually, Emily just sent me a long text; well, she sent it to you, too, but since you're driving. She has deciphered a lot more of the glyphs, and has a lot more to tell us. Many of the symbols on the language learning squares are religious in nature. Their religion was based on the appearance of their gods in flying ships, who taught them how to mine ore, and smelt metals. She also says that the paints have been tested, that were used on the map, and they come from all over. Two of the purple dyes were from vastly different areas. One of the dyes is call Phoenician purple, or Tyrian purple, and comes from seashells, she says it takes nine thousand mollusks to make a gram of the dye. The purple paint used on another area is from the Caribbean, made from Cochineal beetles. The gold on the map is from Spain based on impurities."

Abigail commented, "Did you know that Queen Elizabeth, the first, forbade anyone except royalty to wear purple clothing around sixteen hundred AD?"

Patrick said, "It was for trade reasons, but you could get thrown into prison."

"She talks about other stuff, too, Ben, like finding similarities of their written language to the Olmec, Mayan, Egyptian and Native American glyphs, but you can read it all later. There is one other thing I wanted to share. The grand conjunction of planets we were talking about, and the planets that were drawn on the map interested me. There will be a conjunction in December of this year, but how did those ancients figure out all this stuff, they must have had help. Another item of interest I found on the internet, was that a grand conjunction happened about the time of Christ's birth, the conjunction could have been the star of Bethlehem! Also the big map was very accurate in comparing the size of the planets to the sun, all except Pluto, which was drawn to be as big as Jupiter, and it's distance was way off, too. I did all the measurements from pictures I took."

Patrick responded, "There are people who talk about another planet, way out there, that causes perturbations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, but it hasn't actually been seen yet."

"Well, how could the Atlanteans have known about that?

"The same way they knew all about the other planets..."

They rode in silence for a while, but it was not too long before the traffic got heavy approaching the nation's capitol, then some other off color comments were made about the other terrible drivers. Ben did not like to drive in difficult traffic.

Sadusky contacted them, he was waiting near the bunker in Abidos, but Smith had not gotten there yet. Shortly after he broke contact, his phone buzzed in his hand. "There's a trail bike parked behind the museum, I thought you should know."

"Thanks, Jim."

Sadusky, followed by Mike and Michael, just to keep things straight, entered the small tunnel, and activated the door. It slid open quietly, and they entered without using any light. Lightly walking, they approached the main room. Peering around the corner, they could see the statuary, and other objects left from the first haul, still in place. There was one addition to the room, a man sat on the low edge of a display. He was holding a box on his lap, it was open and the lid and packing material lay at his feet. He could be heard to be weeping softly, and he wiped his nose on his left sleeve. When he crossed his arms, on top of the box, and put his head face down on them, Sadusky entered the room, holding his glock outstretched. Even when they stood over the man, he didn't look up.

"I came all this way, nearly died when I fell asleep, and ran off the road, and all I have to show for it is a damn hunk of wax, with seeds in it. When he set the box down, they could see the wax under the man's dirty fingernails.

There was no weapon on his person, his clothes were disgusting, and filthy. His forehead was clotted with blood, and one eye was swollen shut. Smith was handcuffed, and taken away, Mike carried the box back to the SUV.

**Chapter 9**

The treasure hunters had reconvened with Emily in South Dakota, where Emily was supervising the last of the packing crates being loaded. "Be very careful with the map, the large flat one, it is fragile!"

Patrick gave Abigail a fatherly hug, and said "Thanks for traveling back here to help, it will be nice to get back home." As he let go of her, he glanced down at her waist.

Abigail couldn't help but notice, and teased him with a line from the past, "Do I look pregnant?"

Blushing, Patrick turned away.

Riley just pointed at Ben and shook his head.

They had decided to have a large meal at the best local restaurant they could find, before traveling back to the east coast in the morning. The platter of appetizers was being removed, Riley quickly grabbed the remaining fried cheese curds, and they talked while waiting for their meals to arrive. Patrick and Ben tapped their glasses together before sipping the suggested local brew.

"I was just thinking, the Atlanteans must have discovered the rising water, and receding ice. They realized that a war with Lemuria gained them nothing, both were going to lose everything, so why fight over it. Perhaps the Lemurians did the same type of thing, they are excavating cities lost for many centuries, high in the Andes, in Peru. They are calling the place Caral, about seventy five miles south of Lima, and have found pyramids, and believe there are many cities buried in a once fertile area called the Supe Valley. It was first discovered in 1948, and is near Macchu Piccu, and El Mirador. I read that they have found cloth that dates to five thousand years ago." Riley popped the last cheese curd into his mouth as the dinners were served.

Emily finished her salad, then said, "I found a few more things of interest after you all left, the statues had braces inside them, formed from a crude steel. They must have discovered it near that time. Also, inside one of the urns, were small figurines of animals, some we have never seen before, as well as a few tiny models of the homes they built and lived in. Similar animal figures have been found on the pillars of Puma Punku. There were a number of symbols, which may have had a religious symbolism, but that study will have to be set aside. There are too many other things to look at. Did I tell you about the paint I had tested?"

"Yes, mother, very interesting!" Ben said as he put a large chunk of prime rib into his mouth.

Patrick took another drink of beer, the said, "I am still wondering how the folks from Abidos found out we were going to the cave. It's not like someone was sitting out there watching."

Ben responded, "I talked to Sadusky about that, briefly. He said the motel owner in Duchesne was a cousin of one of the folks from Abidos. He had been paid a small stipend, to keep his eyes and ears open. When he heard about us buying the boat, he called home."

"The bum probably got a bonus!" Patrick grumbled.

"Sadusky did tell me one other thing," Abigail said after wiping her mouth with a napkin, "There were copies of the tablets we had in Abidos, the people from Abidos must have found them under their statues, too. I don't know if they understood any of the writing, but they figured out the map, that's why Smith was there. He had been a ranger for more than two years, but obviously the entry code had eluded him. The park service knew nothing about the fenced off area, or the warning signs, Smith just put them up to keep tourists away."

"We'll have to check with the FBI when we get back, I don't want any more of those crazies sneaking up on us at night!" Riley chimed in with his mouth half full. Ben just smiled in response, he also wondered what all was going to happen.

No one had any room for dessert, so they retired to their rooms relatively early. Plans for travel were already set up. Emily delayed going to her room until she had checked on the treasure cache one more time.

The flights were on time, and amazingly, landed in Washington D. C. on time.

The room still had unopened boxes and crates. It was a secure facility on the outskirts of the city, and everyone needed a key card to enter. Emily had wanted to stay in South Dakota, but finally decided to return with them. The group of five entered the anteroom, where they were given pass cards, then they entered. It was a well lit room, overhead fluorescent fixtures, and no windows. The statues had been lined up on a low shelf, with the urns of various sizes next to them. The batch of boxes was laid out on two long tables, put end to end. The lids had been removed, and placed behind the boxes, as well as any wrapping materials. Eight of the boxes contained wax cubes, filled with various seeds, which Patrick headed for. He removed one seed from each wax cube, with a pocketknife, then took the seeds to the far side of the room. There were instruments of all kinds there, even small portable x-ray machines. He located a lighted, double ocular microscope, and he verified the seeds where he could. There were two seeds he could not identify, but the others were a variety of wheat, a type of corn he had seen in Mexico, and other grains.

Another box contained the seeds of many berries, probably raspberry and blackberry. These would have to be planted and grown, to verify the exact type, and their DNA compared to modern varieties. In another box were seeds of three varieties that he could find no current comparison, they looked a bit like strawberry seeds, but the common breeds had been so changed through desired mutation, they too would have to be grown for verification. Other boxes contained the seeds and nuts of a variety of trees; again, some seemed recognizable, other new to his eyes.

Emily was pouring over a hundred tablets or more, that were covered with their writings, a mixture of symbols and glyphs. She was in her own little heaven, taking photographs, and making notes in a half filled notebook she had brought along.

Riley had removed multiple figurines from another box, and he was lining them up, making little cannon sounds while he moved them about. Ben looked over his shoulder and said, "Maybe it's a chess set..."

"No, I think that they are the space aliens."

"Which planet did they come from Riley?"

"The one that blew up...you know the one with no name."

"Sure Riley...you believe what you want."

Abigail had found some ancient hand drawn maps, and was trying to figure out what they depicted, and wondered where in the ancient world they were taken from. Ben sat down next to her, and said, "I wouldn't spend too much time studying the coastlines. They are now called coral reefs, and shallow seas."

"I know that!" She playfully elbowed his ribs, and said, "I am comparing the position of the cities, and trying to find something inland that might still be above water. These are quite detailed, and show elevated areas in brown."

"I was just talking to Sadusky. He is completing his interview s today. Most of the townspeople, including all the younger ones, are to be returned to Abidos, and they will even be allowed to keep their secret museum, although now it may get opened to the public if they want to. It might become a real tourist attraction. Those who took part in chasing us will have to go on trial, since they stole government property, smashed a vehicle or two, and shot at us with dumdum bullets. Smith, the ranger, is another case, altogether."

Patrick's voice rang out, speaking to no one in particular, "These have to be flower seeds, probably dandelions!"

Ben turned back to Abigail, "I found something that I need to test, do you have a match?"

She looked at him oddly, then pointed at a small Bunsen burner, with a tank of gas attached. There was a flint apparatus next to it, used to ignite the methane. Ben lit the flame, setting it very low, then with a scrap of paper holding a heavy pinch of dark powder, ignited the paper. The powder ignited in a short burst of flame, and dark smoke. Ben smiled, and said "The Chinese did not invent gun powder, these guys did."

Many other items and drawings depicted the homes and cities, they lived in low huts, most had grass roofs. There were religious symbols, mathematical symbols, as well as amber jewelry, sea shells, and many pottery items. There were a few metal items, but it was not clear what their use might have been.

Riley brought over one tablet, saying "See this has got to be a spaceship!"

Patrick said, "Or maybe they invented the Frisbee."

They all agreed to stop around three in the afternoon, to get something to eat. By the time they finished, everyone was tired from all the travel, except Emily, and they decided to call it a day. Ben reminded them that Sadusky had invited them to a special get together that was arranged by the Smithsonian. They were due tomorrow at noon.

"Sadusky also told me that the members of the Abidos families, that worked at the museum, had been exonerated of all wrongdoing, and were going to be allowed to keep working there if they chose to. The crimes had been committed by those long dead, and there was no reason to confiscate the Abidos artifacts. All the new artifacts would be brought to the museum for future display and experimentation."

"Thanks, Ben, see you two in the morning."

They split up, and went their own ways.

The gathering was set up in the ballroom of a large hotel, even though the dress code was casual, and attending were Smithsonian dignitaries, a dozen or so FBI agents, including Sadusky and the men who were with them in Utah. Then a bunch of politicians and local officials, who never pass up a free lunch, were also in attendance.

The speeches were extended thanks, and were not especially memorable, but the applause was well received. The food was excellent, especially the appetizers, shrimp, artichoke dip, and water chestnuts, wrapped in bacon, and cooked in a sweet sauce.

A nicely laid out dinner had been put together for all who had helped out with the endeavor to bring these national treasures to all the people of the world.

Ben stood up, walked to the front of the room, and addressed the assembled group, the agents, the scientists, the workers, the historians, who had bonded together to accomplish a goal.

"Each of us here has done something to set a precedent for the future. These thing we have found, studied, and will continue to study, are the summation of a long dismissed, but not forgotten society, that lived, thrived and died on our good planet.

"There is but one lesson, one ideal, that I can gather from this experience. Tomorrow morning, when you get up, and go about your day, consider all the incredible advancements you see around you. The microwave and refrigerator, the car you drive in, the telephone in your hand. Could you build all of these on your own? Most of us couldn't build any of them. Yet, other people's work make your life simpler. This is the lesson we need to take from these artifacts, the things preserved here, were the legacy of this great society, and they realized what was important, and tried to preserve it.

"Do you remember the stories, tales if you will, given to you by your elders. This was your oral tradition. We in this country have an incredibly rich tradition in our founding fathers, who did what was believed to be impossible. Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin to name just a few, went beyond their parents, their grandparents, to help create this wonderful society we live in. Did they have faults and weaknesses? Of course they did, but whenever I read about those who disparage them, I realize

that those writers also have their own faults and weaknesses, and pointing fingers at these greater men, does nothing to make them better, or more important.

"We live in, and participate in, or hinder the society, to our own desires, but what makes the society great is the overall accomplishments, and how they are used to enhance people's lives. Our grandparents lived in a world where one person could take the life of another with a bullet, we live in a world where one person can destroy a city. Our grandparents lived in a world where one could create something wonderful and new with enough determination, the automobile, the airplane, the record

player. Look at the things being created today, who among us could create a computer, a telephone that is better at computing than a computer the size of a building, which was the best they had when I was a boy.

"When you return home tonight, talk to your children, and grandchildren, and tell them about things that are important."

Ben returned to his table and sat down.

Sadusky looked at Ben, and said, "People don't talk like that anymore."

Ben put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Let's start changing that."

After the waiters cleaned up the room, and all had left, Sadusky approached the tables where the guests of honor were seated. Riley was loosening his belt a notch.

Sadusky stood just behind Ben, put his hand on his friend's shoulder, and said, "I just want you to know that the man who has harassed you, shot at you, and the fact that his warped reasoning was behind it, will not likely be going to prison. I suspect he will spend a good deal of time in a mental facility instead. In my line of work, I have to accept this, at least he didn't kill or hurt anyone. Now go home and give your wife an extra hug from me, I am glad you are all safe… at least for the next week or so." Sadusky turned to walk away, then turned back, "By the way, the Smithsonian is hosting an extra little shindig in your honor at the museum later this week, when the artifacts are taken there. Bring your parents too."

Ben raised his hand to say something, then realized he didn't even know Sadusky's first name, and just lowered his hand. Ben shakes his head and called out "Sadusky? What is your first name?"

Sadusky turns back "You'll just have to find out, won't you? Go enjoy your life with your wife. Settle down, have some kids, tell your own story to them, and then maybe I will tell you."


End file.
